
Qass. 
Bock- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



/ 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD OF 

AMERICAN HISTORY 

BY JOHN FISKE 

ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS 

MAPS FACSIMILES CONTEMPORARY 

VIEWS PRINTS AND OTHER 

HISTORIC MATERIALS 




^^^f^c^'-'<^ ZyC^ Ai-'^^i-ty (T^ 



THE 

CRITICAL PERIOD OF 

AMERICAN HISTORY 

1783 -1789 



BY 



JOHN'FISKE 



I am uneasy and apprehensive 
more so than during the war 
Jav to Washington, June 27, /7S6 




CAMBRIDGE 

5^rinteD at t||e Ulitjcrsfitie ^re^^ 



MDCCCXCVIII 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED 







COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY JOHN FISKE 
1897, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



(iJCtoo J^un&reb anD iFtftg Copie? printrti 



TO 

MY DEAR CLASSMATES, 
FRANCIS LEE HIGGINSON 

AND 

CHARLES CABOT JACKSON, 

/ DEDICATE THIS BOOK 



PREFACE 



The principle of illustration followed in the present work 
is the same that was adopted in the case of " The American 
Revolution," to which this is in effect a third and concluding 
volume. No illustrations have been admitted, save such as 
seem to possess real historical value. 

For help of various sorts I have especially to thank Mr. 
Wilberforce Fames, of the Lenox Library, in New York. 
To many ladies and gentlemen who have kindly assisted me 
I have made specific acknowledgments in my annotated list 
of illustrations. 

The text of this edition has been carefully revised, and in 
some places important additions or changes have been made. 

Cambridge, October i8, 1897. 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



This book contains the substance of the course of lec- 
tures given in the Old South Meeting-House in Boston in 
December, 1884, at the Washington University in St. Louis 
in May, 1885, and in the theatre of the University Ckib in 
New York in March, 1886. In its. present shape it may 
serve as a sketch of the poHtical history of the United 
States from the end of the Revolutionary War to the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution. It makes no preten- 
sions to completeness, either as a summary of the events of 
that period or as a discussion of the political questions in- 
volved in them. I have aimed especially at grouping facts 
in such a way as to bring out and emphasize their causal 
sequence, and it is accordingly hoped that the book may 
prove useful to the student of American history. 

My title was suggested by the fact of Thomas Paine's 
stopping the publication of the " Crisis," on hearing the 
news of the treaty of 1783, with the remark, "The times 
that tried men's souls are over." Commenting upon this, on 
page 55 of the present work, I observed that so far from 
the crisis being over in 1783, the next five years were to be 
the most critical time of all. I had not then seen Mr. Tres- 
cot's " Diplomatic History of the Administrations of Wash- 
ington and Adams," on page 9 of which he uses almost the 
same words : " It must not be supposed that the treaty of 
peace secured the national life. Indeed, it would be more 
correct to say that the most critical period of the country's 
history embraced the time between 1783 and the adoption 
of the Constitution in 1788." 

That period was preeminently the turning-point in the 



X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 

development of political society in the western hemisphere. 
Though small in their mere dimensions, the events here 
summarized were in a remarkable degree germinal events, 
fraught with more tremendous alternatives of future welfare 
or misery for mankind than it is easy for the imagination to 
grasp. As we now stand upon the threshold of that mighty 
future, in the light of which all events of the past are 
clearly destined to seem dwindled in dimensions and signifi- 
cant only in the ratio of their potency as causes ; as we dis- 
cern how large a part of that future must be the outcome of 
the creative work, for good or ill, of men of English speech ; 
we are put into the proper mood for estimating the signifi- 
cance of the causes which determined a century ago that 
the continent of North America should be dominated by a 
single powerful and pacific federal nation instead of being 
parcelled out among forty or fifty small communities, wast- 
ing their strength and lowering their moral tone by per- 
petual warfare, like the states of ancient Greece, or by per- 
petual preparation for warfare, like the nations of modern 
Europe. In my book entitled " American Political Ideas, 
viewed from the Standpoint of Universal History," I have 
tried to indicate the pacific influence likely to be exerted 
upon the world by the creation and maintenance of such a 
political structure as our Federal Union. The present nar- 
rative may serve as a commentary upon what I had in mind 
on page 133 of that book, in speaking of the work of our 
Federal Convention as " the finest specimen of construc- 
tive statesmanship that the world has ever seen." On such 
a point it is pleasant to find one's self in accord with a 
statesman so wise and noble as Mr. Gladstone, whose opin- 
ion is here quoted on page 240. 

To some persons it may seem as if the years 1861-65 
were of more cardinal importance than the years 1783-89. 
Our civil war was indeed an event of prodigious magnitude, 
as measured by any standard that history affords ; and 
there can be little doubt as to its decisiveness. The mea- 
sure of that decisiveness is to be found in the completeness 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xi 

of the reconciliation that has already, despite the feeble 
wails of unscrupulous place-hunters and unteachable bigots, 
cemented the Federal Union so powerfully that all likelihood 
of its disruption may be said to have disappeared forever. 
When we consider this wonderful harmony which so soon 
has followed the deadly struggle, we may well believe it to 
be the index of such a stride toward the ultimate pacification 
of mankind as was never made before. But it was the work 
done in the years 1783-89 that created a federal nation 
capable of enduring the storm and stress of the years 1861- 
65. It was in the earlier crisis that the pliant twig was 
bent ; and as it was bent, so has it grown ; until it has 
become indeed a goodly and a sturdy tree. 

Cambridge, October 10, 1888. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

Fall of Lord North's ministry .... 

Sympathy between British Whigs and the revolutionary party in 

America ........ 

It weakened the Whig party in England 
Character of Lord Shelburne ..... 

Political instability of the Rockingham ministry 
Obstacles in the way of a treaty of peace 
Oswald talks with Franklin .... 

Grenville has an interview with Vergennes . 
Effects of Rodney's victory .... 

Misunderstanding between Fox and Shelburne 

Fall of the Rockingham ministry 

Shelburne becomes prime minister 

Defeat of the Spaniards and French at Gibraltar 

French policy opposed to American interests 

The valley of the Mississippi ; Aranda's prophecy 

The Newfoundland fisheries ..... 

Jay detects the schemes of Vergennes 

And sends Dr. Vaughan to visit Shelburne . 

John Adams arrives in Paris and joins with Jay in insisting upon 

a separate negotiation with England .... 
The separate American treaty, as agreed upon : 

1. Boundaries 

2. Fisheries ; commercial intercourse .... 

3. Private debts 

4. Compensation of loyalists . . . . 
Secret article relating to the Yazoo boundary 
Vergennes does not like the way in which it has been done 
On the part of the Americans it was a great diplomatic victory 
Which the commissioners won by disregarding the instructions 

of Congress and acting on their own responsibility 



PAGB 
I 



4 

6,7 

8 

9-11 

12 

14 

14 

IS 

16 

17 
17 
18 
20 
21 
21 

21-23 

24 

25 
26 

27-31 
31 
32 

32 



34 



xiv CONTENTS 

The Spanish treaty 34 

The French treaty 35 

Coalition of Fox with North 36-41 

They attack the American treaty in Parliament .... 41 

And compel Shelburne to resign 41,42 

Which leaves England without a government, while for several 

weeks the king is too angry to appoint ministers . , -43 
Until at length he succumbs to the coalition, which presently 

adopts and ratifies the American treaty ..... 44 
The coalition ministry is wrecked upon Fox's India Bill . . 44, 46 
Constitutional crisis ends in the overwhelming victory of Pitt in 

the elections of May, 1784 46,47 

And this, although apparently a triumph for the king, was really 

a death-blow to his system of personal government . . 48, 49 

CHAPTER II 

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

Cessation of hostilities in America 50 

Departure of the British troops 52 

Washington resigns his command 53 

And goes home to Mount Vernon 54 

His "legacy" to the American people 55 

The next five years were the most critical years in American his- 
tory 56 

Absence of a sentiment of union, and consequent danger of an- 
archy 56, 57 

European statesmen, whether hostile or friendly, had little faith 

in the stability of the Union 58, 59 

False historic analogies 60 

Influence of railroad and telegraph upon the perpetuity of the 

Union 62 

Difficulty of travelling a hundred years ago .... 63 
Local jealousies and antipathies, an inheritance from primeval 

savagery 64 

Conservative character of the American Revolution ... 66 
State governments remodelled; assemblies continued from colo- 
nial times 67 

Origin of the senates in the governor's council of assistants . 68 

Governors viewed with suspicion 68 

Analogies with British institutions 70 

The judiciary 71 

Restrictions upon suffrage 72 



CONTENTS XV 

Abolition of primogeniture, entails, and manorial privileges . 73 

Steps toward the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade . 74-77 

Progress toward religious freedom 78) 79 

Church and state in Virginia 80 

Persecution of dissenters 81 

Madison and the Religious Freedom Act 82 

Temporary overthrow of the church 83 

Difficulties in regard to ordination ; the case of Mason Weems . 84 
Ordination of Samuel Seabury by non-jurors at Aberdeen . 85 

Francis Asbury and the Methodists 87 

Presbyterians and Congregationalists 88 

Roman Catholics 88, 89 

Except in the instance of slavery, all the changes described in this 

chapter were favourable to the union of the states ... 90 
But while the state governments, in all these changes, are seen 
working smoothly, we have next to observe, by contrast, the 
clumsiness and inefficiency of the federal government . . 90, 91 

• 

CHAPTER III 

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

The several states have never enjoyed complete sovereignty . 92 
But in the very act of severing their connection with Great Britain, 

they entered into some sort of union 94 

Anomalous character of the Continental Congress . . 95 

The articles of confederation ; they sought to establish a " league 

of friendship " between the states 96-100 

But failed to create a federal government endowed with real 

sovereignty 101-104 

Military weakness of the government .... 104-106 

Extreme difficulty of obtaining a revenue . . . . 108, 109 
Congress, being unable to pay the army, was afraid of it . . 109 
Supposed scheme for making Washington king . . . .112 

Greene's experience in South Carolina 113 

Gates's staff officers and the Newburgh address . . . .114 

The danger averted by Washington 115, 116 

Congress driven from Philadelphia by mutinous soldiers . .118 
The Commutation Act denounced in New England . . . 119 

Order of the Cincinnati 120-124 

Reasons for the dread which it inspired 125 

Congress finds itself unable to carry out the provisions of the 

treaty with Great Britain . 126 

Persecution of the loyalists 127,128 



xvi CONTENTS 

It was especially severe in New York 128 

Trespass Act of 1784 directed against the loyalists . . .130 
Character and early career of Alexander Hamilton . . 130-132 

The case of Rutgers v. Waddington 132-134 

Wholesale emigration of Tories 135 

Congress unable to enforce payment of debts to British creditors 137 
England retaliates by refusing to surrender the fortresses on the 
northwestern frontier 137 



CHAPTER IV 

DRIFTING TOWARD AXARCHY 

The barbarous superstitions of the Middle Ages concerning trade 

were still rife in the eighteenth century 139 

The old theory of the uses of a colony 139 

Pitt's unsuccessful attempt to secure free trade between Great 

Britain and the United States 141 

Ship-building in New England 142 

British navigation acts and orders in council directed against 

American commerce 142 

John Adams tried in vain to negotiate a commercial treaty with 

Great Britain 143, 144 

And could see no escape from the difficulties except in systematic 

reprisal 145 

But any such reprisal was impracticable, for the several states im- 
posed conflicting duties 146 

Attempts to give Congress the power of regulating commerce 

were unsuccessful 147, 148 

And the several states began to make commercial war upon one 

another 149 

Attempts of New York to oppress New Jersey and Connecticut 150 
RetaHatory measures of the two latter states . . . .152 
The quarrel between Connecticut and Pennsylvania over the pos- 
session of the valley of Wyoming 152-156 

The quarrel between New York and New Hampshire over the 

possession of the Green Mountains 157,158 

Failure of American diplomacy because European states could 
not tell whether they were dealing with one nation or with 

thirteen 160, 161 

Failure of American credit ; John Adams begging in Holland 161, 162 

The Barbary pirates 163 

American citizens kidnapped and sold into slavery . . .166 
Lord Sheffield's outrageous pamphlet 166 



CONTENTS 



Tripoli's demand for blackmail . , 167 

^ Congress unable to protect American citizens .... 167 
Financial distress after the Revolutionary War . . . 1 68-1 71 

State of the coinage 172 

Cost of the war in money . 174 

Robert Morris and his immense services 174 

The craze for paper money 177 

Agitation in the southern and middle states . . . 178-182 

Distress in New England 182 

Imprisonment for debt 185 

Rag-money victorious in Rhode Island ; the " Know Ye " mea- 
sures 186-190 

Rag-money defeated in Massachusetts ; the Shays insurrec- 
tion 190-196 

The insurrection suppressed by state troops .... 197 

Conduct of the neighbouring states 198 

The rebels pardoned 200 

Timidity of Congress 201, 202 



CHAPTER V 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

Creation of a national domain beyond the Alleghanies 
Conflicting claims to the western territory . 
Claims of Massachusetts and Connecticut 

Claims of New York 

Virginia's claims ....... 

Maryland's novel and beneficent suggestion 



. 203, 204 
204 
. 205 
205 
. 206 
206, 207 
The several states yield their claims in favour of the United 

States 207, 208 

Magnanimity of Virginia 209 

Jefferson proposes a scheme of government for the northwestern 

territory 210 

Names of the proposed ten states 212 

Jefferson wishes to prohibit slavery in the national domain . .212 

North Carolina's cession of western lands 213 

John Sevier and the state of Franklin 214, 215 

The northwestern territory 216 

Origin of the Ohio company 217 

The Ordinance of 1787 218-221 

Theory of folk-land upon which the ordinance was based . . 222 
Spain, hearing of the secret article in the treaty of 1783, loses her 
temper and threatens to shut up the Mississippi River . 223-225 



xviii CONTENTS 

Gardoqui and Jay 225 

Threats of secession in Kentucky and New England . . 226 

Washington's views on the political importance of canals between 

east and west 228 

His far-sighted genius and self-devotion 229 

Maryland confers with Virginia regarding the navigation of the 

Potomac 229 

The Madison-Tyler motion in the Virginia legislature . 230, 231 

Convention at Annapolis, Sept. II, 1786 232 

Hamilton's address calling for a convention at Philadelphia 232, 233 
The impost amendment defeated by the action of New York; last 

ounce upon the camel's back 235-237 

Sudden changes in popular sentiment 238 

The Federal Convention meets at Philadelphia, May, 1787 239, 240 
Mr. Gladstone's opinion of the work of the convention . . 240 

The men who were assembled there 241-243 

Character of James Madison 244, 245 

The other leading members 246 

Washington chosen president of the convention .... 247 



CHAPTER VI 

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

Why the proceedings of the convention were kept secret for so 

many years 249 

Difficulty of the problem to be solved .... 249, 250 
Symptoms of cowardice repressed by Washington's impassioned 

speech 250 

The root of all the difficulties; the edicts of the federal govern- 
ment had operated only upon states, not upon individuals, and 
therefore could not be enforced without danger of war . 251-254 
The Virginia plan, of which Madison was the chief author, of- 
fered a radical cure . 254, 255 

And was felt to be revolutionary in its character . . 256-258 
Fundamental features of the Virginia plan .... 258, 260 

How it was at first received 260 

The House of Representatives must be directly elected by the 

people 261,262 

Question as to the representation of states brings out the antag- 
onism between large and small states 262 

William Paterson presents the New Jersey plan ; not a radical 

cure, but a feeble palliative 263, 264 

Struggle between the Virginia and New Jersey plans . 264-267 



CONTENTS xix 

The Connecticut compromise, according to which the national 
principle is to prevail in the House of Representatives, and the 
federal principle in the Senate, meets at first with fierce oppo- 
sition 270,271 

But is at length adopted 272 

And proves a decisive victory for Madison and his methods . 273 

A few irreconcilable members go home in dudgeon . . 273, 274 
But the small states, having been propitiated, are suddenly con- 
verted to Federalism, and make the victory complete . . 274 

Vague dread of the future west 275 

The struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties began 

in the convention, and was quieted by two compromises . . 276 
Should representation be proportioned to wealth or to popula- 
tion? 276 

Were slaves to be reckoned as persons or as chattels ? . . 277 

Attitude of the Virginia statesmen 278 

It was absolutely necessary to satisfy South Carolina . 279, 280 
The three fifths compromise, suggested by Madison, was a gen- 
uine EngUsh solution, if ever there was one .... 280 
There was neither rhyme nor reason in it, but for all that, it was 

the best solution attainable at the time 281 

The next compromise was between New England and South 
Carolina as to the foreign slave-trade and the power of the fed- 
eral government over commerce . 282 

George Mason calls the slave-trade an " infernal traffic " . . 284 
And the compromise offends and alarms Virginia .... 284 
Belief in the moribund condition of slavery .... 288 
The foundations of the Constitution were laid in compromise . 289 

Powers granted to the federal government 290 

Use of federal troops in suppressing insurrections . . . 290 

Various federal powers 292, 293 

Provision for a federal city under federal jurisdiction . . . 293 
The Federal Congress might compel the attendance of members 293 

Powers denied to the several states 294 

Should the federal government be allowed to make its promissory 
notes a legal tender in payment of debts? powerful speech of 

Gouverneur Morris 294 

Emphatic and unmistakable condemnation of paper money by all 

the leading delegates 295 

The convention refused to grant to the federal government the 
power of issuing inconvertible paper, but did not think an ex- 
press prohibition necessary 296 

If they could have foreseen some recent judgments of the su- 
preme court, they would doubtless have made the prohibition 
explicit and absolute 207 



XX CONTENTS 

Debates as to the federal executive 298 

Sherman's suggestion as to the true relation of the executive to 

the legislature 298 

There was to be a single chief magistrate, but how should he be 

chosen ? 299 

Objections to an election by Congress 300 

Ellsworth and King suggest the device of an electoral college, 

which is at first rejected 300 

But afterwards adopted 303 

Provisions for an election by Congress in the case of a failure of 

choice by the electoral college 303 

Provisions for counting the electoral votes .... 304 
It was not intended to leave anything to be decided by the presi- 
dent of the Senate 305 

The convention foresaw imaginary dangers, but not the real ones 306 
Hamilton's opinion of the electoral scheme . . . 307, 308 

How it has actually worked 308 

In this part of its work the convention tried to copy from the 

British Constitution 310 

In which they supposed the legislative and executive departments 

to be distinct and separate 310 

Here they were misled by Montesquieu and Blackstone . . 311 
What our government would be if it were really like that of 

Great Britain 312-315 

In the British government the executive department is not sepa- 
rated from the legislative 315 

Circumstances which obscured the true aspect of the case a cen- 
tury ago 316-318 

Veto power and independence of the executive . . . 318-320 
The American cabinet is analogous, not to the British cabinet, 

but to the privy council 320 

The federal judiciary, and its remarkable character . . 321 322 

Provisions for amending the Constitution 323 

The document is signed by all but three of the delegates present 324 

And the convention breaks up 324 

With a pleasant remark from Franklin 325 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER VII 



CROWNING THE WORK 

Franklin lays the Constitution before the legislature of Pennsyl- 
vania 327 

It is submitted to Congress, which refers it to the legislatures of 
the thirteen states, to be ratified or rejected by the people in 

conventions 327 

First American parties, Federalists and Antifederalists . . 329 

The contest in Pennsylvania 329, 330 

How to make a quorum 332 

A war of pamphlets and newspaper squibs . . . 332, 333 
Ending in the ratification of the Constitution by Delaware, Penn- 
sylvania, and New Jersey 334 

Rejoicings and mutterings 335 

Georgia and Connecticut ratify 336 

The outlook in Massachusetts ...... 336, 338 

The Massachusetts convention meets 339 

And overhauls the Constitution clause by clause .... 341 
On the subject of an army Mr. Nason waxes eloquent . . 342 

The clergymen oppose a religious test 342 

And Rev. Samuel West argues on the assumption that all men 

are not totally depraved 343 

Feeling of distrust in the mountain districts .... 344 

Timely speech of a Berkshire farmer 344, 345 

Attitude of Samuel Adams 346, 348 

Meeting of mechanics at the Green Dragon 348 

Charges of bribery 349 

Washington's fruitful suggestion 350 

Massachusetts ratifies, but proposes amendments . . . 351 
The Long Lane has a turning and becomes Federal Street . . 354 
New Hampshire hesitates, but Maryland ratifies, and all eyes are 

turned upon South Carolina 354, 355 

Objections of Rawlins Lowndes answered by Cotesworth Pinck- 

ney 356 

South Carolina ratifies the Constitution 357 

Important effect upon Virginia, where thoughts of a southern 

confederacy had been entertained 357, 358 

Madison and Marshall prevail in the Virginia convention, and it 

ratifies the Constitution 360 

New Hampshire had ratified four days before .... 361 
Rejoicings at Philadelphia; riots at Providence and Albany . 362 
The struggle in New York 362 



xxii CONTENTS 

Origin of the " Federalist " 364, 365 

Hamilton wins the victory, and New York ratifies . . . 368 
All serious anxiety is now at an end ; the laggard states, North 

Carolina and Rhode Island 369 

First presidential election, Januaiy 7, 1789; Washington is unani- 
mously chosen 370 

Why Samuel Adams was not selected for vice-president . . 371 

Selection of John Adams 372 

Washington's journey to New York, April 16-23 • • • 373 

His inauguration 374 

Bibliographical Note 377 

Members of the Federal Convention .... 383 

Presidents of the Continental Congress . . . 386 

Index 387 



NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



All the maps, except where otherwise specified, have been rnade from tny draivings 
or tender my direction. 

The abbreviatioti {Emmet : Lenox} signifies that the illustration is taken from the 
collection of Dr. Thotnas Addis Emmet, which is now in the Lenox Library, New 
York. 

James Madison {photogravure) Frontispiece 

From the original painting by Gilbert Stuart, at Bowdoin College. Auto- 
graph from Lenox Library, New York. 

N Guy Vaux: Overthrow of Lord North's Ministry ... 3 

From Caricatures of James Gillray, Political Series, vol. i., one of the 
books of my old friend, the late Samuel Jones Tilden, now in Lenox Library. 

In the foreground the jackass, George III., sits dozing, crowned with a 
dunce-cap, while above him hangs the riband of the Garter, containing a 
crown borne on a donkey's back. The sceptre is in a bag lying on the floor, 
and under the throne is a keg marked Gunpowder. Charles Fox as Guy 
Fawkes (= Vaux = Fox), with vulpine face, is coming through the door, 
lantern in hand, while on his right the Duke of Richmond carries a fagot of 
sticks, and on his left the Earl of Shelburne brings in another keg of powder. 
Between Shelburne and Fox we see the face of Dunning, afterward Lord 
Ashburton ; while behind Dunning appears Edmund Burke in spectacles. 
The wall of the anteroom is decorated with a figure of Catiline. 

Earl of Shelburne 5 

From a mezzotint in the Letters of Junius, London, iSoi. Autograph 
from Correspondence of the Earl of Chatham, vol. iii. 

Charles James Fox 7 

From National Portraits, vol. v., after an original painting by Sir Joshua 
Reynolds, in the possession of Lord Denman. Autograph from MS. collec- 
tion in Library of Boston Athenaeum. 

Thomas Grenville 11 

From National Portraits, vol. vi., after an original painting by John 
Hopner, in the possession of Hon. G. M. Fortescue. Autograph from the 
same book. 

Rodney Triumphant 13 

From the Gillray Caricatures, Lenox Library. 

I have never seen any description of this very interesting satirical print. 
Wright, in his learned work on the caricature history of the House of Han- 



xxiv NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 

over, makes no mention of it, though he describes others of less importance 
relating to the same event. Much history is concentrated in the picture. 

The battle of Sainte-Marie-Galante (or of the Saints), April 12, 1782, is 
called by Captain Mahan " the greatest naval battle in its results that had 
been fought in a century." (Jnfluetice of Sea Power on History, p. 4S5.) 
The victor, Sir George Rodney, was a Tory and had been appointed to his 
command by Lord North's ministry ; he was personally objectionable to the 
Whigs, who condemned him severely (and in my opinion justly) for his high- 
handed behaviour at St. Eustatius, Feb. 3, 1781. (See my American Revo- 
lution, illustrated edition, vol. ii. p. 163.) On the other hand, a favourite 
Whig admiral was Hon. Augustus Keppel, son of the Earl of Albemarle. 
On July 27, 1778, Admiral Keppel chased a French fleet off Ushant but failed 
to bring on a decisive action, though some broadsides were exchanged. A 
Tory subordinate, Vice-Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, charged Keppel with neg- 
lect of duty, and recriminations went on until both Keppel and Palliser were 
tried by court-martial and both were honourably acquitted. As the net result, 
Keppel was petted by the Whig statesmen, idolized by the London populace, 
ridiculed by the Tories, and furiously hated by the King. He became a 
member of Lord Rockingham's cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty, March 
30, 1782, and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Keppel, April 27. On 
May I, before the news of Rodney's great victory had reached England, the 
ministry sent Admiral Pigot to the West Indies to supersede him, with a 
cold and almost insulting letter of recall. On May 18 came the news of the 
victory, and Lord North in Parliament said to the ministers : " You have 
conquered, but you have conquered with the arms of Philip ! " 

In the foreground of the picture Rodney is treading upon the French flag, 
while Admiral de Grasse is surrendering his sword. Behind Grasse stand 
a party of woe-begone Frenchmen ; behind Rodney are his hilarious jack 
tars bringing ashore boxes of louis d'or, etc., while a boat in the near back- 
ground shows the British ensign floating above the fleurs-de-lis. Over Rod- 
ney's head a viscount's coronet is descending " from Jove " the giver of vic- 
tory. A dilapidated building on the left does duty for the Admiralty office, 
and on its front is a hatchment, the symbol of mourning, enclosing an in- 
verted ship and rusty axe, and bearing the inscription "27th July, Gloria," 
referring to the date when KeppePs glory died off Ushant. Before the build- 
ing Lord North and the Earl of Sandwich, who had been his First Lord of the 
Admiralty, are walking jubilant ; North exclaims, " Ha, ha, ha, behold Augus- 
tus the 27th ! " while Sandwich adds, " Ha, ha, ha, new measures — send a pig 
[Pigot] to supersede a Lion ! " In the left foreground stand a very disgusted 
trio. Fox exclaims, " Damn the French for coming in his way, say I," and 
Keppel responds, " 'T is the last fleet he shall have the opportunity of beat- 
ing, however ! " The third figure can hardly be any other than the prime 
minister, Lord Rockingham, though it does not look much like him. His 
comment is, " This is more than we expected, more than we wished." 

The discomfited ministers sent an express to prevent Admiral Pigot from 
sailing, but he had already started. The viscount's coronet never descended 
upon Rodney's head. He was raised to the peerage, but only as a baron, 
and was given a pension of £2,000 a year ; the least the ministry could do in 
deference to public opinion. 

Count Araxda 19 

From Blasoti de Espaua : Libro de Oro de sje Nobleza, tom. i. Autograph 



NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS xxv 

from a MS. in the National Library at Madrid, through the kindness of 
Hon. Hannis Taylor, U. S. minister at the Court of Spain. 

Boundaries of the United States, Canada, and the Span- 
ish Possessions, according to the Proposals of the 
Court of France in 1782 {coloured map) .... facing 20 
From Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's Life of the Earl of Shclburne. 

John Adams 23 

From the portrait by C. W. Peale, in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. 
Autograph from the MS. collection of Hon. Mellen Chamberlain. 

Boundary Monument on the St. Croix 25 

After a plate in Bouchette's British Domifiioits in North America, Lon- 
don, 1832. 

John Jay {photogravure) facing 26 

From the original portrait by Stuart, in Bedford House, the homestead 
of the Jays, at Katonah, N. Y. Autograph from Tuckerman's William Jay. 

Benjamin Franklin 29 

From Geschichte der Kriege in iind aiisser Europa, Theil xi. Niirnberg, 
1778. 

^ Count Vergennes {photogravure) facing 30 

From the frontispiece to Doniol, Histoire dc la Participation de la 
France h V Etablissement des Efats-Unis d^Amcriqtte, Paris, i8S6, 5 vols., 
4to, vol. i. ; an engraving by Vangelisti, from the original painting by 
Antoine Francois Callet. Autograph from the same book. 

Robert R. Livingston 33 

After a portrait by J. Vanderlyn in the National Portrait Gallery. Auto- 
graph from the same book. 

Edward Gibbon 35 

From the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the possession of the Earl 
of Sheffield. Autograph from his Autobiography. 

Lord North as Ignavia 37 

From Wright's House of Hanover, London, 1842. 

The Lord of the Vineyard 39 

From the Gillray Caricatures, Lenox Library. 

The Duke of Portland is handing the bunch of grapes to Fox and North, 
exclaiming, " Take it between ye." But Reynard appears to be getting the 
lion's share. 

Isaac Barre 41 

From a print published October 31, 1782, by J. Walker, 44 Paternoster 
Row, London ; now in Lenox Library. Autograph from Memorial History 
of Boston. 

The American Peace Commissioners {photogravure) facing 42 

After the unfinished painting by Benjamin West, in the possession of 



xxvi NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 

Lord Belper; from a photograph bequeathed by Charles Sumner to the 
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 

The figures, from the left of the picture to the right, are Jay, Adams, 
Franklin, Laurens, and Franklin's grandson, William Temple Franklin, who 
looks nearly as old as his grandfather. 

Facsimile Signatures of the Treaty of Peace .... 43 

From the Magazi7ie of American History, vol. x. p. 384, after the original 
document in the Department of State at Washington. 

George III 45 

From an engraving in National Portraits, after the original painting by 
Sir Thomas Lawrence. Autograph from Lossing's Field-Book of the Revo- 
lution. 

William Pitt 47 

From an engraving in National Portraits, after the original painting by 
Gainsborough. Autograph from MS. collection in Library of Boston Athe- 
naeum. 

Thomas Paine 51 

From a small octavo print in Lenox Library, marked " Peel pinx., Angus 
sculps." Autograph from Appleton's Cyclopmiia of American Biography. 

Fraunces's Tavern, New York 52 

From Valentine's New York City Ma7mal, 1S54. This house, on the 
corner of Broad and Pearl streets, is said to be the oldest now standing in 
the city. It was built in 1700 by Etienne De Lancey, on land given him by 
his father-in-law, Stephanus Van Cortlandt. In 1762 it was sold by Oliver 
De Lancey to Samuel Fraunces, a French mulatto, commonly called Black 
Sam, who used it for a tavern, with the sign " Queen's Head," in honour of 
Queen Charlotte. It was an admirably kept tavern, much in vogue for din- 
ners, soirees, club-meetings, etc. Black Sam was a credit to his profession. 

Thomas Mifflin 53 

From the original painting by C. W. Peale, in Independence Hall. Auto- 
graph from Appleton's Cyclofcedia of American Biography. 

Mount Vernon 55 

From a photograph. The house was built about 1740 by Augustine Wash- 
ington, whose son Lawrence named the estate after Admiral Vernon, under 
whom he had served in the expedition against Cartagena. On Lawrence's 
death, in 1753, it passed to his brother George. 

Washington resigning his Commission at Annapolis {photo- 
gravure) facing ^d 

From the original painting by Trumbull in the Art Gallery of Yale Uni- 
versity. 

Facsimile of the Proclamation by Congress, Jan. 14, 

1784 58, 59 

Reduced from a broadside in the possession of the Massachusetts His- 
torical Society. 



NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS xxvii 
Autograph of John Fitch 60 

From Watson's Annals of Philadelphia. 

Fitch's First Steamboat, Perseverance 6r 

From Reminiscences of an Old Ne-v Yorker (Emmet : Lenox). 

Old Stage-Coach 63 

From Basil Hall's Forty Sketches in North America, London, 1829. 

Washington's Coach and Four 65 

From a photograph (Emmet : Lenox). 

Fitch's Steamboat of 1790 67 

From Reminiscences of an Old New Yorker (Emmet : Lenox). 

View of North Side of Wall Street, 1785 69 

From the same. 

Merchants' Exchange, New York, i 752-1 799 71 

From the same. 

Edmund Burke 73 

From an engraving in National Portraits, after the original painting by 
John Opie, in the possession of Countess Delaware. Autograph from 
Burke's Works, vol. i. 

Lord Thurlow 75 

From an engraving by S. W. Reynolds, after the original painting by Sir 
Joshua Reynolds. Autograph from the MS. collection of Hon. Mellen 
Chamberlain. 

George Washington {photogravure) facing 78 

From a painting by C. W. Peale, by the kind permission of its present 
owner, Mrs. Joseph Harrison, of Philadelphia. Autograph from Washing- 
ton's signature to a bill of exchange. 

PoHiCK Parish Church 83 

From a drawing in Virginia State Library 

Samuel Seabury, Bishop of Connecticut 85 

From an engraving by Ritchie after the original portrait by T. S. Duche. 
Autograph from Beardsley's Life and Correspondence of Bishop Seabury. 

Francis Asbury 87 

From Strickland's Life and Times of Francis Asbury. Autograph from 
the same. 

John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore 89 

From an engraving in O'Shea's Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the 
Catholic Church in the United States, after the original painting by Stuart. 
Autograph from J. G. Shea's Catholic Chtcrch in Colonial Days. 

The American Rattlesnake 93 

From the Gillray Caricatures, Lenox Library. The original print was 
published April 12, 1782. The serpent is exclaiming (observe the rhyme): — 



xxviii NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 

" Two British armies I have thus Burgoyned, 
And room for more I 've got behind ! " 

A placard held up by the tail announces •■ an apartment to let for military 
gentlemen." 

John Dickinson g^ 

From the original painting by C. W. Peale, in Independence Hall. Auto- 
graph from Winsor's America. 

Thomas McKean gy 

From an engraving by P. B. Welch, in National Portrait Gallery, after 
the original painting by Gilbert Stuart. Autograph from the same book. 

John Hanson gg 

From the original painting by C. W. Peale, in Independence Hall. Auto- 
graph from the MS. collection of Hon. Mellen Chamberlain. 

Elias Boudinot loo 

From a steel engraving by St. Memin in 179S; frontispiece to Boudinot's 
Life of Elias Boudinot. Autograph from National Poj-trait Gallery. 

Nathaniel Gorham 103 

From an etching by Rosenthal, with autograph (Emmet: Lenox). 

Cyrus Griffin 105 

From a painting in Independence Hall, after an original miniature by Sully 
in 1801. Autograph from MS. collection of Hon. Melien Chamberlain. 

Facsimile of Continental Budget for 1786 107 

Photographed from MS. Reports of the Board of Treasury : A (Emmet : 
Lenox). 

Plan of the City of New York, 1776 no, in 

From Reminiscences of an Old New Yorker (Emmet: Lenox). 

Horatio Gates n5 

From a pencil sketch by Trumbull, reproduced in the Mount Vernon edi- 
tion of Irving's Life of Waslmigton. Autograph from MS. collection in 
Library of Boston Athenjeum. 

George Washington 117 

From an etching by Rosenthal, after an original painting by Wright, in 

17S4 (Emmet: Lenox). 

Rear View of Independence Hali 119 

From a photograph, showing its present appearance. 

Old View of Middletown from the Hartford Road . . 121 

From Barber's Connecticut Historical Collections. 

Badge of the Cincinnati 122 

From a drawing after a cut in Magazine of American History, vol. x. 
p. 190. 

Facsimile of Title-page of ^danus Burke's Pamphlet . 123 

Photographed from the original in the Library of Harvard University. 



NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS xxix 

Alexander UAWi-LTo-a {pkotogmvure) facing 126 

Photographed from the Houdon bust, by ki-nd permission of its owner, 
Hon. Nicholas Fish, of New York. Autograph from MS. collection in 
Library of Boston AthenKum. 

Stone Bridge where Broadway now crosses Canal 

oTREET , 120 

From Reminiscences of an Old New Yorker (Emmet : Lenox). 

Lispenard's Meadows from Site of Broadway and Broome 
Street i^i 

From the same. 

Alexander Hamilton 13- 

From the original painting by Trumbull in the New York Chamber of 
Commerce, by kind permission of Alexander E. Orr, Esq., its president. 

Facsimile of a Continental Lottery Ticket 141 

(Emmet : Lenox). 

Independence Hall and New Theatre, Philadelphia, 
1785 143 

After a print in Dr. Emmet's illustrations of the Federal Convention 
(Emmet : Lenox). 

View from Battery, New York 145 

After a sketch in Drayton's Tour tlnough ihc Norfhcrn and Eastern 
States of America, Charleston, 1794. 

The ship in the picture is the French frigate Ambuscade, which had 
lately brought Citizen Genet to America. 

George Clinton i4cj 

After a miniature by Ramage. 

Room in Fraunces's Tavern 147 

From Appleton's Journal, vol. xi. 

Bird's-Eye View of Wyoming Valley 151 

After an engraving kindly lent by Dr. F. C. Johnson, of Wyoming Com- 
memoration Society, Wilkes-Barre. 

Connecticut Settlements in Pennsylvania 153 

Abridged, and slightly modified, from the large map in Hoyfs Brief of a 
Title in the Seventeen Townshifs in the County of Luzerne, Harrisburg, 
1879. 

John Armstrong 155 

From an engraving, with autograph, in Dr. Emmefs illustrations of the 
Annapolis Convention (Emmet: Lenox), after an original portrait by J. W. 
Jarvis. 

Thomas Chittenden 159 

From Walton's Records of the Council of Safety and Governor and 
Cottncil of the State of Vermont, Autograph from the same. 



XXX NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 

John Adams 163 

From Geschiedenis van het Geschil tiisschen Groot-Britannie en Amerika., 
Amsterdam, 17S2. 

Facsimile Title-page of the History of the Reign of 
MuLEY Ismail 165 

Photographed from the copy in my library. 

Autograph of William Grayson 168 

Yrova. Annapolis Convention (Emmet: Lenox). I have been unable to 
find any portrait of Grayson. 

Foreign Coins formerly in Circulation in the United 
States 169 

These coins are all represented in " life size." The pistole, pistareen, 
guinea, and doubloon are from Taylor's Gold and Silver Coin Examiner, 
New York, 1846. The ducat and carolin are from Dye's Coin Chart Man- 
ual, New York, 1855. ^^^^ shilling, half joe, crown, moidore, and Spanish 
dollar are from The Delineated Coin Chart, Cincinnati, 1857. 

Isaiah Thomas 171 

From the portrait by Greenwood, in the possession of the American 
Antiquarian Society, at \Vorcester. The autograph is from a MS. kindly 
lent by Mr. E. M. Barton, librarian of the Society. 

Facsimile Page of the Massachusetts Spy 173 

From the original, in possession of the American Antiquarian Society. 

Robert Morris {photogravure) facing \'j\ 

From the original portrait by Stuart, through the kind permission of the 
owner, C. F. M. Stark, Esq., of Winchester, Mass. Autograph from the 
Declaration of Independence. 

Specimens of Continental Currency 175, 176 

These and all the following specimens of paper currency are culled from 
Dr. Emmet's superb collection in the Lenox Library. 

Scales for weighing Coins 177 

Photographed from the original, in my library. The box and scales were 
used by my great-great-grandfather, Bezaleel Fiske, who was town-clerk of 
Middletown, Conn., from 1777 to 1797. My great-grandfather, John Fiske, 
who succeeded him as town-clerk, held the office until his death m 1S47. I 
have seen him weigh coins with these scales, but no doubt the occasions for 
such testing had become infrequent. 

Specimen of Massachusetts Currency 179 

Specimen of Connecticut Currency 180 

Specimens of New York Currency 183, 184 

Specimen of Pennsylvania Currency 187 

Specimen of Maryland Currency 188 

Facsimile of a "Know Ye" Certificate 191 

From a photograph kindly furnished by Amos Perry, Esq., of the Rhode 



NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS xxxi 

Island Historical Society. The extracts are from the United States Chro7i- 
icle^ August 10, 17S6. 

Specimen of South Carolina Currency 193 

Genuine and Counterfeit Continental Notes .... 194 
Old Street View in Worcester 195 

From Barber's Massachusetts Historical Collections. 

House in Petersham where Shays was captured . . . 197 

a typical New England farmhouse, spacious and comfortable. For many 
years it was the homestead of my venerable friend, Deacon Cephas Willard, 
a descendant of Simon Willard (see my Beginnings of New England, p. 
216), and member of a family which has given two presidents to Harvard. 
The house has recently been pulled down ; but before that happened it was 
photographed by William Simes, Esq., to whose kindness 1 am indebted for 
the opportunity to produce this woodcut. 

Governor Bowdoin's Proclamation 199 

Reduced from a copy in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society. 

James Bowdoin 201 

From an original miniature by Copley, through the kindness of the owner, 
Robert C. Winthrop, Esq. Autograph from Winsor's America. 

Thomas Jefferson {phoiograviire) facing 204 

From an old copy, in my possession, of the original crayon portrait by St. 
Memin. Autograph from the Declaration of Independence. 

The Beginnings of Ohio {coloured map) facing 208 

In making this map my chief authority was Whittlesey's Tract br, West- 
ern Reserve aiid Northern Ohio Historical Society. 

Jefferson's Proposed States in the Northwest, 1784 . .211 

Abridged from the map in Winsor's America, vii. 529. My abridgment 
seems to have cut off " Sylvania," west of Lake Superior. 

State of Franklin, lyS/^-di^ {coloured map) .... facing 212 

I have never seen, nor found any one who has seen, a map of this short- 
lived state ; and have, therefore, done the best I could, subject to correction. 

John Sevier 215 

After an original portrait by C. W. Peale, presented in 1891 by Sevier's 
granddaughter, Mrs. Eliza Sevier Donald, to the Tennessee Historical 
Society at Nashville. Autograph from Kirke's Rear Guard of the Revolu- 
tion. 

RuFus Putnam 217 

From an engraving by S. HoUyer, in Matthews's History of Washington 
County, Ohio. Autograph from the same book. 

RuFus Putnam's House at Rutland, Mass 218 

From a drawing made after a photograph. 



xxxii NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 

Manasseh Cutler 219 

From Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, Cm- 
cinnati, 1888. Autograph from the same. 

Manasseh Cutler's Birthplace at Killixgly, Conn. . . 220 

From a photograph kindly lent by Miss Ellen Larned, of Thompson, 
Conn. 

Wolf Creek Mills, Ohio, 1789 222 

From the American Pioneer, March, i S43. 

Campus Martius, Marietta, Ohio 223 

From the same, March, 1842. 

Plan of Campus Martius 225 

From Columbian Magazine, November, 17S8. 

Diego de Gardoqui 227 

From Bowen's Washington Centennial, 18S9. Autograph from a MS. 
in the National Library at Madrid, through the kindness of Hon. Hannis 
Taylor. 

Spanish Claim in the Southwest {coloured map) . facing 228 
John Tyler, the Elder 231 

From an original painting by James Worrell, in the Virginia State Library 
at Richmond. Autograph from Lossing's Field-Book of the Revolntion. 

Annapolis State House 233 

From Atuiapolis Co7ivention (Emmet : Lenox). 

Nathan Dane 234 

From an etching by Rosenthal, with autograph, in Annapolis Convention 
(Emmet : Lenox). 

Facsimile of President Dickinson's Letter to the Gov- 
ernor OF Massachusetts 235 

From AitnapoUs Convention (Emmet : Leno.x). 

Rufus King 237 

From the original miniature by Trumbull — painted in 1 792 — in the Art 
Gallery of Yale University. Autograph from Annapolis Convention (Em- 
met : Lenox) . 

Old Rear View of Independence Hall 239 

From Etting's History of Independence Hall. 

Jonathan Dayton 241 

From Rosenthal's etching, with autograph, in Federal Convention (Era- 
met : Lenox). 

John Lansing 243 

From the same. 



\ 



NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS xxxiii 
James Madison 245 

From the original painting by C. \V. Peale, in the possession of the Long 
Island Historical Society, at Brooklyn. 

William Samuel Johnson 247 

From Rosenthal's etching in Federal Convention (Emmet : Lenox), after 
the original painting by Stuart. Autograph from the same collection. 

James Madison {photogravure) facing 248 

From Reminiscences of an Old New Yorker (Emmet : Lenox), after a 
drawing made by James Longacre at Montpelier in 1S33, when Madison was 
in his eighty-third year. The autograph is from a MS. collection in Library 
of Boston Athenaeum. 

George Washington, President of the Convention . .251 

Photographed from a miniature painted from life by Archibald Robertson 
in 1 791. The negative was kindly lent by Clarence Winthrop Bowen, Esq. 

William Jackson, Secretary of the Convention .... 253 

From Rosenthal's etching in Federal Convention (Emmet : Lenox), after 
the original painting by Trumbull. Autograph from the same collection. 

Edmund Randolph 255 

From a portrait by Fisher, in the Virginia State Library, at Richmond. 
Autograph from MS. collection of Hon. Mellen Chamberlain. 

George Wythe 257 

From the painting by Weir, in Independence Hall, after an original by 
Trumbull. Autograph from the Declaration of Independence. 

William Livingston 261 

From Rosenthal's etching, with autograph, in Federal Conveyition (Em- 
met: Lenox). 

William Paterson 263 

From the same collection. 

Arms and Autograph of David Brearley 265 

From the same. I have not been able to find any portrait of Brearley. 

Gunning Bedford 267 

From the same. 

Oliver Ellsavorth 268 

From the engraving by Mackenzie, in National Portrait Gallery, after an 
original painting by James Herring. Autograph from the same book. 

Abraham Baldwin 269 

From an engraving by J. B. Forrest, after an original sketch by Robert 
Fulton, the steamboat inventor. Autograph from National Portrait Gallery. 

Elbridge Gerry 271 

From an engraving by J. B. Longacre, after an original painting by Van- 
derlyn. Autograph from Winsor's America. 



xxxiv NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 

Gerry's House at Cambridge 273 

From an old print. The house was built between 1763 and 1767 by 
Thomas Oliver, the last Royal Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, who 
left it in 1774, never to return. It was afterwards for many years tlie home 
of Elbridge Gerry, whose successor was Rev. Charles Lowell, father of James 
Russell Lowell. In this house the poet was born and died. The beautiful 
elms, which have given to the estate the name Elmwood, do not show in this 
picture, and most of them have probably grown up within the present cen- 
tury. 

Luther Martin • . . . . 275 

From a painting (after an unknown original) by Tiffany, in Independence 
Hall. Autograph from Federal Convention (Emmet : Lenox). 

Autograph of Robert Yates 276 

From the same collection. 

Pierce Butler 278 

From Rosenthal's etching, with autograph, in the same collection. 

John Rutledge 279 

From an ambrotype of a portrait by Trumbull, kindly lent by Mrs. B. H. 
Rutledge, of Charleston. Autograph from National Portrait Gallery. 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney 283 

From Rosenthal's etching, after an original painting by Trumbull, in Fed- 
eral Convention (Emmet : Lenox). Autograph from the same collection. 

George Mason (^photogravure) facing 284 

From a painting by Herbert Walsh, in Independence Hall, after the origi- 
nal by Stuart. Autograph from Anna/>olis Convention (Emmet : Lenox). 

Charles Pinckney 285 

From Rosenthal's etching in Federal Convention (Emmet : Lenox). 

Facsimile of a Letter written by Charles Pinckney 

286, 287 

From the same collection. 

GuNSTON Hall, Virginia : Mason's Home 289 

From A7inapolis Convention (Emmet : Lenox). 

John Langdon 291 

From Rosenthal's etching, after an original painting by Trumbull, in Fed- 
eral Convention (Emmet : Lenox). Autograph from the same collection. 

George Read 295 

From a painting by Sully, in Independence Hall, after the original by 
Stuart. Autograph from Federal Convention (Emmet : Lenox). 

Roger Sherman {photogravure) facing 298 

From a painting by Hicks, in Independence Hall, after the original by 
Earle. Autograph from the Declaration of Independence. 



NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS xxxv 
Daniel Carroll 301 

From Rosenthal's etching in Federal Convention (Emmet : Lenox). Auto- 
, graph from signatures to the Constitution of the United States. 

William Blount 303 

From Rosenthal's etching, with autograph, in Annajiolis Convetition 
(Emmet: Lenox). 

Hugh Williamson 305 

From an engraving by Thomson — after the original painting by Trum- 
bull — in Retniniscetices of an Old New Yorker {¥.va.m&\.: Lenox). Auto- 
graph from signatures to the Constitution. 

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS 307 

From Rosenthal's etching, after a painting by Sully, in Federal Conven- 
tion (Emmet : Lenox). Autograph from the same collection. 

John Blair 309 

From Rosenthal's etching, in the same, with autograph. 

Caleb Strong • .... 311 

From the same, after an original painting by Stuart. 

Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer 313 

From the same, after an original painting by Trumbull. 

Autograph of William Pierce 315 

From the MS. collection of Hon. Mellen Chamberlain. 

Facsimile of Signatures to the Constitution 322 

From a photograph of the original document, kindly lent by Andrew H. 
Allen, Esq., from the Bureau of Rolls, Department of State, at Washington. 

The President's Armchair 325 

From Etting's History of Independence Hall. 

Benjamin Franklin {photograzmre) facing 328 

From an original portrait by C. W. Peale, in the possession of the Penn- 
sylvania Historical Society. It was painted in 1790, when Franklin was 
eighty-four years old. The autograph is from the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. 

George Clymer 331 

After the original painting by C. W. Peale, in the Pennsylvania Academy 
of Fine Arts. Autograph from Annapolis Convention (Emmet : Lenox). 

James Wilson {photogravitrc) facing 332 

From a painting by Wharton, in Independence Hall, after an original 
miniature by James Peale. Autograph from Federal Convention (Emmet : 
Lenox). 

Boston in 1790 335 

Facsimile of a print in Massachusetts Magazine^ November, 1790. " The 
point of view is in Governor Hancock's grounds ; the Common, with the 



xxxvi NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 

great elm, is in the middle distance, the south part of the town with the Neck- 
are beyond, and in the further parts are Dorchester Heights." See Winsor's 
America, vii. 32S. One is impressed, as in the picture of Elmwood on page 
273, with the absence of trees. The host of noble elms, which to-day make 
Boston Common as bosky as Kensington Gardens, have apparently all grown 
within a century. 

John Hancock 337 

From An Impartial History of the War in At?terica, London, 17S0. 

Theophilus Parsons 339 

From an engraving by Schiff, in the Memoir by his son, Theophilus Par- 
sons, after an original painting by Stuart. Autograph from a MS. Register 
in the Library of Harvard University. 

Fisher Ames 340 

From the original miniature painted by Trumbull in 1792, now in the Art 
Gallery of Yale University. Autograph from the MS. collection of Hon. 
Mellen Chamberlain. 

Silhouette of Rev. Samuel West 343 

For the silhouette and autograph I am indebted to the kindness of Mrs. 
Alice G. West, of Worcester. The portrait undeniably has a matronly ex- 
pression, like the familiar portrait of Samuel Sewall ; but the excellent parson 
was masculine enough in theology and politics, and could strike out from the 
shoulder with effect. 

Tomb of Jonathan Smith, at Lanesborough 345 

From a photograph kindly furnished by J. A. Royce, Esq., of Lanes- 
borough. I have been unable to find any portrait of Mr. Smith. 

Autograph of Jonathan Smith 346 

Facsimile of his signature, as a selectman of Lanesborough. to a document 
kindly lent me by his great-granddaughter, Mrs. Jane H. Mills, of Amherst. 

Samuel Adams 347 

From An Impatiial History of the War in America, London, 17S0. 

Sign of Green Dragon Tavern 348 

From E. H. Goss's Life of Colonel Paul Revere. 

Paul Revere 349 

After an original painting by Stuart. Autograph from MS. collection in 
Library of Boston Athenaeum. 

Governor Hancock's Letter to the President of Con- 
gress 352, 353 

Photographed from the original document in Federal Convention (Em- 
met : Lenox). 

Federal Street Meeting-House, Boston 354 

From Gannett's Memorial of the Federal-Street Meeting-House, Boston, 
i860. 



NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS xxxvii 
Benjamin Harrison 357 

From a portrait after Trumbull, in Independence Hall. Autograph from 
the Declaration of Independence. 

Edmund Pendleton 359 

From a painting by Sully, in the Virginia State Library, copied from a 
miniature. Autograph from the MS. collection of Hon. Mellen Chamber- 
lain. 

John Marshall (^photogravure) facing 360 

Photographed from a miniature by St. Memin, in the possession of Miss 
Anne Harvie, of Richmond, a daughter of the only daughter of Chief Justice 
Marshall. The negative was kindly lent by Mrs. Sallie Marshall Hardy, of 
Louisville, Ky. Autograph from MS. collection in the Library of the Bos- 
ton Athenaeum. 

The Ninth Pillar erected 361 

From the Boston Independent Chronicle, June zb, 1788, in the Library 
of the Boston Athenaeum. 

George Clinton 363 

From an engraving in Bowen's Waskitigton Centennial, after the por- 
trait by Ames. 

An Old View of Poughkeepsie 364 

From Reminiscences of an Old New Yorker (Emmet : Lenox). 

Alexander Hamilton 365 

From an engraving in Bowen's Washington Centennial, after the minia- 
ture said to have been made for Prince Talleyrand by James Sharpless. 

Melancton Smith 367 

Photographed from a pencil sketch in Annapolis Convention (Emmet : 
Lenox), where no information about it is given. The autograph is from the 
same collection. 

Parade in New York in honour of the Adoption of the 
Constitution 369 

From a contemporary print in Federal Convention (Emmet : Lenox). 

Washington's Letter to Jabez Bowen, of Rhode Island 370 

Photographed from the original document in Federal Convention (Em- 
met : Lenox). 

Washington's Triumphal Journey to New York .... 372 

a picture by George Cruikshank, from Refniniscences of an Old New 
Yorker (Emmet : Lenox). 

Inauguration of Washington 374 

A picture by Felix Darley, from the same. 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD OF AMERICAN 
HISTORY 



CHAPTER I 

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



The 20th of March, 1782, the day which witnessed the 
fall of Lord North's ministry, was a day of good omen for 
men of English race on both sides of the Atlantic. Within 
two years from that date, the treaty which established the 
independence of the United States was successfully nego- 
tiated at Paris ; and at the same time, as part of the series of 
events which resulted in the treaty, there went on in Eng- 
land a rapid dissolution and reorganization of parties, which 
ended in the overwhelming defeat of the king's attempt to 
make the forms of the constitution subservient to his selfish 
purposes, and established the liberty of the people upon a 
broader and sounder basis than it had ever occupied before. 
Great indignation was expressed at the time, and has some- 
times been echoed by British historians, over the conduct of 
those Whigs who never lost an opportunity of expressing 
their approval of the American revolt. The Duke of Rich- 
mond, at the beginning of the contest, expressed a hope that 
the Americans might succeed, because they were in the 
right. Charles Fox spoke of General Howe's first 
victory as "the terrible news from Long Island." between^^ 
Wraxall says that the celebrated buff and blue wh-gs and 
colours of the Whig party were adopted by Fox ^^ revoiu- 
in imitation of the Continental uniform ; but his party in 
unsupported statement is open to question. It is 
certain, however, that in the House of Commons the Whigs 



2 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

habitually alluded to Washington's army as " our army," 
and to the American cause as " the cause of liberty ; " and 
Burke, with characteristic vehemence, declared that he 
would rather be a prisoner in the Tower with Mr. Laurens 
than enjoy the blessings of freedom in company with the 
men who were seeking to enslave America. Still more, the 
Whigs did all in their power to discourage enlistments, and in 
various ways so thwarted and vexed the government that the 
success of the Americans was by many people ascribed to 
their assistance. A few days before Lord North's resignation, 
George Onslow, in an able defence of the prime minister, 
exclaimed, " Why have we failed so miserably in this war 
against America, if not from the support and countenance 
given to rebellion in this very House .'' " 

Now the violence of party leaders like Burke and Fox 
owed much of its strength, no doubt, to mere rancorousness 
of party spirit. But, after making due allowance for this, we 
must admit that it was essentially based upon the intensity 
of their conviction that the cause of English liberty was 
inseparably bound up with the defeat of the king's attempt 
upon the liberties of America. Looking beyond the quar- 
rels of the moment, they preferred to have freedom guaran- 
teed, even at the cost of temporary defeat and partial loss of 
empire. Time has shown that they were right in this, but 
the majority of the people could hardly be expected to com- 
prehend their attitude. It seemed to many that the great 
Whig leaders were forgetting their true character as English 
statesmen, and there is no doubt that for many years this 
It weak- was the chicf source of the weakness of the Whig 
WMgt'n party. Sir Gilbert Elliot said, with truth, that if 
England ^^g Whigs had not thus to a considerable extent 
arrayed the national feeling against themselves. Lord North's 
ministry would have fallen some years sooner than it did. 
The king thoroughly understood the advantage which ac- 
crued to him from this state of things ; and with that short- 
sighted shrewdness of the mere political wire-puller, in which 
few modern politicians have excelled him, he had from the 




V?B 



' ^^'"^n 
P^ ^^P, 



0M 




MM£.Mk^&<i^- 



4 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

outset preferred to fight his battle on constitutional ques- 
tions in America rather than in England, in order that the 
national feeling of Englishmen might be arrayed on his side. 
He was at length thoroughly beaten on his own ground, and 
as the fatal day approached he raved and stormed as he had 
not stormed since the spring of 1778, when he had been 
asked to entrust the government to Lord Chatham. Like 
the child who refuses to play when he sees the game going 
against him, George threatened to abdicate the throne and go 
over to Hanover, leaving his son to get along with the Whig 
statesmen. But presently he took heart again, and began 
to resort to the same kind of political management which 
had served him so well in the earlier years of his reign. 
Among the Whig statesmen, the Marquis of Rockingham 
had the largest political following. He represented the old 
Whig aristocracy, his section of the party had been first to 
urge the recognition of American independence, and his 
principal followers were Fox and Burke. For all these rea- 
sons he was especially obnoxious to the king. On the other 
hand, the Earl of Shelburne was, in a certain sense, 

Character ' ' 

of Lord the political heir of Lord Chatham, and represented 
principles far more liberal than those of the Old 
Whigs. Shelburne was one of the most enlightened states- 
men of his time. He was an earnest advocate of parliamen- 
tary reform and of free trade. He had paid especial atten- 
tion to political economy, and looked with disgust upon the 
whole barbaric system of discriminative duties and commer- 
cial monopolies which had been so largely instrumental in 
bringing about the American Revolution. But being in these 
respects in advance of his age. Lord Shelburne had but few 
followers. Moreover, although a man of undoubted integ- 
rity, quite exempt from sordid or selfish ambition, there was 
a cynical harshness about him which made him generally 
disliked and distrusted. He was so suspicious of other men 
that other men were suspicious of him ; so that, in spite of 
many admirable qualities, he was extremely ill adapted for 
the work of a party manager. 



1782 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



It was doubtless for these reasons that the king, when it 
became clear that a new government must be formed, made 
up his mind that Lord Shelburne would be the safest man 
to conduct it. In his hands the Whig power would not be 




«^^^^i^nj2^ 



likely to grow too strong, and dissensions would be sure to 
arise, from which the king might hope to profit. The first 
place in the treasury was accordingly offered to Shelburne ; 
and when he refused it, and the king found himself forced 
to appeal to Lord Rockingham, the manner in which the 
bitter pill was taken was quite characteristic of George III. 
He refused to meet Rockingham in person, but sent all 
his communications to him through Shelburne, who, thus 



6 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

conspicuously singled out as the object of royal preference, 
was certain to incur the distrust of his fellow ministers. 

The structure of the new cabinet was unstable enough, 
however, to have satisfied even such an enemy as the king. 
Beside Rockingham himself, Lord John Cavendish, Charles 
Fox, Lord Keppel, and the Duke of Richmond were all Old 
Whigs. To offset these five there were five New Whigs, the 
Duke of Grafton, Lords Shelburne, Camden, and Ashburton, 
and General Conway ; while the eleventh member was none 
other than the Tory chancellor, Lord Thurlow, who was 
kept over from Lord North's ministry. Burke was made 
paymaster of the forces, but had no seat in the cabinet. In 
this curiously constructed cabinet, the prime minister, Lord 
Political in- Rockiugham, counted for little. Though a good 
stability of party leader, he was below mediocrity as a states- 
ingham man, and his health was failing, so that he could 
not attend to business. The master spirits were 
the two secretaries of state, Fox and Shelburne, and they 
wrangled perpetually, while Thurlow carried the news of all 
their quarrels to the king, and in cabinet meetings usually 
voted with Shelburne. The ministry had not lasted five 
weeks when Fox began to predict its downfall. On the 
great question of parliamentary reform, which was brought 
up in ]\Iay by the young William Pitt, the government was 
hopelessly divided. Shelburne' s party was in favor of reform, 
and this time Fox was found upon the same side, as well as 
the Duke of Richmond, who went so far as to advocate 
universal suffrage. On the other hand, the Whig aristocracy, 
led by Rockingham, were as bitterly opposed as the king 
himself to any change in the method of electing parliaments ; 
and, incredible as it may seem, even such a man as Burke 
maintained that the old system, rotten boroughs and all, was 
a sacred part of the British Constitution, which none could 
handle rudely without endangering the country ! But in 
this moment of reaction against the evil influences which had 
brought about the loss of the American colonies, there was 
a strong feeling in favour of reform, and Pitts motion was 



1782 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



only lost by a minority of twenty in a total vote of three 
hundred. Half a century was to elapse before the reformers 
were again to come so near to victory. 

But Lord Rockingham's weak and short-lived ministry was 
nevertheless remarkable for the amount of good work it did 




-^ -^X^ 



r 



in spite of the king's dogged opposition. It contained great 
administrative talent, which made itself felt in the most 
adverse circumstances. To add to the difficulty, the minis- 
try came into office at the critical moment of a great agita- 
tion in Ireland. In less than three months, not only was the 
trouble successfully removed, but the important bills for dis- 
franchising revenue officers and excluding contractors from 



8 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

the House of Commons were carried, and a tremendous blow 
was thus struck at the corrupt influence of the crown upon 
elections. Burke's great scheme of economical reform was 
also put into operation, cutting down the pension list and 
diminishing the secret service fund, and thus destroying 
many sources of corruption. At no time, perhaps, since the 
expulsion of the Stuarts, had so much been done toward 
purifying English political life as during the spring of 1782. 
But during the progress of these important measures, the 
jealousies and bickerings in the cabinet became more and 
more painfully apparent, and as the question of peace with 
America came into the foreground, these difficulties hastened 
to a crisis. 

From the policy which George III. pursued with regard 
to Lord Shelburne at this time, one would suppose that in 
his secret heart the king wished, by foul means since all 
others had failed, to defeat the negotiations for peace and 
to prolong the war. Seldom has there been a more oddly 
Obstacles Complicated situation. Peace was to be made with 
o'faTr^ty America, France, Spain, and Holland. Of these 
of peace powcrs, America and France were leagued together 
by one treaty of alliance, and France and Spain by another, 
and these treaties in some respects conflicted with one 
another in the duties which they entailed upon the combat- 
ants. Spain, though at war with England for purposes of 
her own, was bitterly hostile to the United States ; and 
France, thus leagued with two allies which pulled in opposite 
directions, felt bound to satisfy both, while pursuing her own 
ends against England. To deal with such a chaotic state of 
things, an orderly and harmonious government in England 
should have seemed indispensably necessary. Yet on the 
part of England the negotiation of a treaty of peace was to 
be the work of two secretaries of state who were both politi- 
cally and personally hostile to each other. Fox, as secretary 
of state for foreign affairs, had to superintend the nego- 
tiations with France, Spain, and Holland. Shelburne was 
secretary of state for home and colonial affairs ; and as the 



1782 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 9 

United States were still officially regarded as colonies, the 
American negotiations belonged to his department. With 
such a complication of conflicting interests, George III. 
might well hope that no treaty could be made. 

The views of Fox and Shelburne as to the best method of 
conceding American independence were very different. Fox 
understood that France was really in need of peace, and he 
believed that she would not make further demands upon 
England if American independence should once be recog- 
nized. Accordingly, Fox would have made this concession 
at once as a preliminary to the negotiation. On the other 
hand, Shelburne felt sure that France would insist upon 
further concessions, and he thought it best to hold in reserve 
the recognition of independence as a consideration to be 
bargained for. Informal negotiations began between Shel- 
burne and Franklin, who for many years had been warm 
friends. In view of the impending change of government, 
Franklin had in March sent a letter to Shelburne, expressing 
a hope that peace might soon be restored. When the letter 
reached London the new ministry had already been formed, 
and Shelburne, with the consent of the cabinet, answered 
it by sending over to Paris an agent, to talk with Franklin 
informally, and ascertain the terms upon which the Ameri- 
cans would make peace. The person chosen for this purpose 
was Richard Oswald, a Scotch merchant, who owned large 
estates in America, — a man of very frank disposition and 
liberal views, and a friend of Adam Smith. In April, 
Oswald had several conversations with Franklin. ^ ,, 

. Oswald 

In one of these conversations Frankhn suggested talks with 
that, in order to make a durable peace, it was desir- 
able to remove all occasion for future quarrel ; that the line 
of frontier between New York and Canada was inhabited by 
a lawless set of men, who in time of peace would be likely to 
breed trouble between their respective governments ; and 
that therefore it would be well for England to cede Canada 
to the United States. A similar reasoning would apply to 
Nova Scotia. By ceding these countries to the United 



lo THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

States it would be possible, from the sale of unappropriated 
lands, to indemnify the Americans for all losses of private 
property during the war, and also to make reparation to the 
Tories, whose estates had been confiscated. By pursuing 
such a policy, England, which had made war on America 
unjustly, and had wantonly done it great injuries, would 
achieve not merely peace, but reconciliation, with America ; 
and reconciliation, said Franklin, is "a sweet word." No 
doubt this was a bold tone for Franklin to take, and perhaps 
it was rather cool in him to ask for Canada and Nova Scotia ; 
but he knew that almost every member of the Whig ministry 
had publicly expressed the opinion that the war against 
America was an unjust and wanton war ; and being, more- 
over, a shrewd hand at a bargain, he began by setting his 
terms high. Oswald doubtless looked at the matter very 
much from Franklin's point of view, for on the suggestion 
of the cession of Canada he expressed neither surprise nor 
reluctance. Franklin had written on a sheet of paper the 
main points of his conversation, and, at Oswald's request, he 
allowed him to take the paper to London to show to Lord 
Shelburne, first writing upon it a note expressly declaring 
its informal character. Franklin also sent a letter to Shel- 
burne, describing Oswald as a gentleman with whom he 
found it very pleasant to deal. On Oswald's arrival in Lon- 
don, Shelburne did not show the notes of the conversation 
to any of his colleagues, except Lord Ashburton. He kept 
the paper over one night, and then returned it to Franklin 
without any formal answer. But the letter he showed to the 
cabinet, and on the 23d of April it was decided to send 
Oswald back to Paris, to represent to Franklin that, on being 
restored to the same situation in which she was left by the 
treaty of 1763, Great Britain would be willing to recognize 
the independence of the United States. Fox was authorized 
to make a similar representation to the French government, 
and the person whom he sent to Paris for this purpose was 
Thomas Grenville, son of the author of the Stamp Act. 
As all British subjects were prohibited from entering into 



1782 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



negotiations with the revolted colonies, it was impossible for 
Oswald to take any decisive step until an enabling act should 
be carried through Parliament. But while waiting for this 
he might still talk informally with Franklin. Fox thought 
that Oswald's presence in Paris indicated a desire on Shel- 
burne's part to interfere with the negotiations with the 
French government ; and indeed, the king, out of his hatred 
of Fox and his inborn love of intrigue, suggested to Shel- 
burne that Oswald " might be a useful check on that part of 
the negotiation which was in other hands." But Shelburne 




/^^7^.^i^ ^{>U^^^^<-^ 



paid no heed to this crooked advice, and there is nothing to 
show that he had the least desire to intriofue ac^ainst Fox. 
If he had, he would certainly have selected some other agent 
than Oswald, who was the most straightforward of men, and 
scarcely close-mouthed enough for a diplomatist. He told 
Oswald to impress it upon Franklin that if America was to 



12 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

be independent at all she must be independent of the whole 
world, and must not enter into any secret arrangement with 
France which might limit her entire freedom of action in 
the future. To the private memorandum which desired the 
cession of Canada for three reasons, his answers were as fol- 
lows : "I. By way of reparation. — Answer. No reparation 
can be heard of. 2. To prevent fiittire ivars. — Answer. It 
is to be hoped that some more friendly method will be found. 
3. As a fund of iiideinnification to loyalists. — Answer. No 
independence to be acknowledged without their being taken 
care of." Besides, added Shelburne, the Americans would 
be expected to make some compensation for the surrender of 
Charleston, Savannah, and the city of New York, still held 
by British troops. From this it appears that Shelburne, as 
well as Franklin, knew how to begin by asking more than 
he was likely to get. 

While Oswald submitted these answers to Franklin, Gren- 
ville had his interview with Vergennes, and told him that, 
^jjjg if England recognized the independence of the 
has an United States, she should expect France to restore 

with Ver- the islands of the West Indies which she had taken 
gennes from England. W^hy not, since the independence 
of the United States was the sole avowed object for which 
France had gone to war } Now this was on the 8th of May, 
and the news of the destruction of the French fleet in the 
West Indies, nearly four weeks ago, had not yet reached 
Europe. Flushed with the victories of Grasse, and exulting 
in the prowess of the most formidable naval force that 
France had ever sent out, Vergennes not only expected to 
keep the islands which he had got, but was waiting eagerly 
for the news that he had acquired Jamaica besides. In this 
mood he returned a haughty answer to Grenville. He re- 
minded him that nations often went to war for a specified 
object, and yet seized twice as much if favoured by for- 
tune ; and, recurring to the instance which rankled most 
deeply in the memories of Frenchmen, he cited the events 
of the last war. In 1756 England went to war with France 



14 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 



over the disputed right to some lands on the Ohio River and 
the Maine frontier. After seven years of fighting she not 
only kept these lands, but all of Canada, Louisiana, and 
Florida, and ousted the French from India into the bargain. 
No, said Vergennes, he would not rest content with the inde- 
pendence of America. He would not even regard such an 
offer as a concession to France in any way, or as a price in 
return for which France was to make a treaty favourable to 
England. As regards the recognition of independence, Eng- 
land must treat directly with America. 

Grenville was disappointed and chagrined by this answer, 
and the ministry miade up their minds that there would be 
no use in trying to get an honourable peace with France 
for the present. Accordingly, it seemed better to take Ver- 
gennes at his word, though not in the sense in which he 
meant it, and, by granting all that the Americans could rea- 
sonably desire, to detach them from the French alliance as 
soon as possible. On the i8th of May there came the news 
Effects of ^^ ^^^ stupendous victory of Rodney over Grasse, 
Rodney's and all England rang with jubilee. Again it had 

victory , , i ■!->•• i i mi 

been shown that " Britannia rules the wave ; and 
it seemed that, if America could be separately pacified, the 
House of Bourbon might be successfully defied. Accord- 
ingly, on the 23d, five days after the news of victory, the 
ministry decided " to propose the independence of America 
in the first instance, instead of making it the condition of a 
general treaty." Upon this Fox rather hastily maintained 
that the United States were put at once into the position of 
an independent and foreign power, so that the business of 
negotiating with them passed from Shelburne's department 
into his own. Shelburne, on the other hand, argued that, as 
the recognition of independence could not take effect until 
a treaty of peace should be concluded, the negotiation with 
America still belonged to him, as secretary for the colonies. 
Following Fox's instructions, Grenville now claimed the right 
of negotiating with Franklin as well as with Vergennes ; but 
as his written credentials only authorized him to treat with 



1782 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 15 

France, the French minister suspected foul play, and turned 
a cold shoulder to Grenville. For the same reason, Gren- 
ville found Franklin very reserved and indisposed to talk on 
the subject of the treaty. While Grenville was thus rebuffed 
and irritated he had a talk with Oswald, in the course of 
which he got from that simple and high-minded gentleman 
the story of the private paper relating to the cession of Can- 
ada, which Franklin had permitted Lord Shelburne to see. 
Grenville immediately took offence ; he made up his mind 
that something underhanded was going on, and that this 
was the reason for the coldness of Franklin and Vergennes ; 
and he wrote an indignant letter about it to Fox. From the 
wording of this letter, Fox got the impression that Frank- 
lin's proposal was much more serious than it really was. It 
naturally puzzled him and made him angry, for the attitude 
of America implied in the request for a cession of Canada 
was far different from the attitude presumed by the theory 
that the mere offer of independence would be enough to 
detach her from her alliance with France. The plan of the 
ministry seemed imperilled. Fox showed Grenville's letter 
to Rockingham, Richmond, and Cavendish ; and they all 
inferred that Shelburne was playing a secret part, for pur- 
poses of his own. This was doubtless unjust to Shelburne. 
Perhaps his keeping the matter to himself was simply one 
more illustration of his want of confidence in Fox ; or, per- 
haps he did not think it worth while to stir up the cabinet 
over a question which seemed too preposterous ever to come 
to anything. Fox, however, cried out against Shelburne's 
alleged duplicity, and made up his mind at all events to get 
the American negotiations transferred to his own depart- 
ment. To this end he moved in the cabinet, on the last day 
of June, that the independence of the United States should 
be unconditionally acknowledged, so that England p^jj ^^ ^j^^ 
might treat as with a foreign power. The motion Rocking- 

T 1 1 1 1 1 li'i'^ minis- 

was lost, and rox announced that he should re- try, juiy i, 

sign his office. His resignation would probably "^ ^ 

of itself have broken up the ministry, but, by a curious 



i6 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

coincidence, on the next day Lord Rockingham died; and 
so the first British government begotten of Washington's 
victory at Yorktown came prematurely to an end. 

The Old Whigs now found some difificulty in choosing a 
leader. Burke was the greatest statesman in the party, but 
he had not the qualities of a party leader, and his connec- 
tions were not sufficiently aristocratic. Fox was distrusted 
by many people for his gross vices, and because of his way- 
wardness in politics. In the dissipated gambler, who cast 
in his lot first with one party and then with the other, and 
who had shamefully used his matchless eloquence in defend- 
ing some of the worst abuses of the time, there seemed as 
yet but little promise of the great reformer of later years, 
the Charles Fox who came to be loved and idolized by all 
enlightened Englishmen. Next to Fox, the ablest leader in 
the party was the Duke of Richmond, but his advanced 
views on parliamentary reform put him out of sympathy 
with the majority of the party. In this embarrassment, the 
choice fell upon the Duke of Portland, a man of great wealth 
and small talent, concerning whom Horace Walpole ob- 
served, " It is very entertaining that two or three great fam- 
ilies should persuade themselves that they have a hereditary 
and exclusive right of giving us a head without a tongue ! " 
The choice was a weak one, and played directly into the 
hands of the king. When urged to make the Duke of Port- 
land his prime minister, the king replied that he had already 
^, „ offered that position to Lord Shelburne. Here- 

shelburne ^ . . 

prime min- upon Fox and Cavcndish resigned, but Richmond 
remained in office, thus virtually breaking his con- 
nection with the Old Whigs. Lord Keppel also remained. 
Many members of the party followed Richmond and went 
over to Shelburne. William Pitt, now twenty-three years 
old, succeeded Cavendish as chancellor of the exchequer ; 
Thomas Townshend became secretary of state for home and 
colonies, and Lord Grantham became foreign secretary. 
The closing days of Parliament were marked by altercations 
which showed how wide the breach had grown between the 



1782 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 17 

two sections of the Whig party. Fox and Burke believed 
that Shelburne was not only playing a false part, but was 
really as subservient to the king as Lord North had been. 
In a speech ridiculous for its furious invective, Burke com- 
pared the new prime minister with Borgia and Catiline. And 
so Parliament was adjourned on the nth of July, and did 
not meet again until December. 

The task of making a treaty of peace was simplified both 
by this change of ministry and by the total defeat of the 
Spaniards and French at Gibraltar in September. Six 
months before, England had seemed worsted in every quar- 
ter. Now England, though defeated in America, was victo- 
rious as regarded France and Spain. The avowed object for 
which France had entered into alliance with the Americans 
was to secure the independence of the United States, and 
this point was now substantially gained. The chief object 
for which Spain had entered into alliance with France was 
to drive the English from Gibraltar, and this point was now 
decidedly lost. France had bound herself not to desist from 
the war until Spain should recover Gibraltar ; but now there 
was little hope of accomplishing this, except by some fortu- 
nate bargain in the treaty, and Vergennes tried to persuade 
England to cede the great stronghold in exchange for West 
Florida, which Spain had lately conquered, or for Oran or 
Guadaloupe. Failing in this, he adopted a plan for satisfy- 
ing Spain at the expense of the United States ; and he did 
this the more willingly as he had no love for p^^^ ^ 
the Americans, and did not wish to see them be- policy op- 
come too powerful. France had strictly kept her American 
pledges ; she had given us valuable and timely aid '"'^'"^^^^ 
in gaining our independence ; and the sympathies of the 
French people were entirely with the American cause. But 
the object of the French government had been simply to 
humiliate England, and this end was sufficiently accom- 
plished by depriving her of her thirteen colonies. 

The immense territory extending from the Alleghany 
Mountains to the Mississippi River, and from the border of 



i8 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

West Florida to the Great Lakes, had passed from the hands 
of France into those of England at the peace of 1763 ; and 
by the Quebec Act of 1774 England had declared the south- 
ern boundary of Canada to be the Ohio River. At present 
the whole territory, from Lake Superior down to the south- 
ern boundary of what is now Kentucky, belonged to the 
state of Virginia., whose backwoodsmen had conquered it 
from England in 1779. In December, 1780, Virginia had 
provisionally ceded the portion north of the Ohio to the 
United States, but the cession was not yet completed. The 
region which is now Tennessee belonged to North Carolina, 
which had begun to make settlements there as long ago as 
1758. The trackless forests included between Tennessee 
and West Florida were still in the hands of wild tribes of 
Cherokees and Choctaws, Chickasaws and Creeks. Several 
The valley thousand pionecrs from North Carolina and Vir- 
of the Mis- ginia had already settled beyond the mountains, 

sissippi; •' . -^ . ,, . 

Aranda's and the white population was rapidly increasing, 
propiecy -pj^jg territory the French government was very 
unwilling to leave in American hands. The possibility of 
enormous expansion which it would afford to the new nation 
was distinctly foreseen by sagacious men. Count Aranda, 
the representative of Spain in these negotiations, wrote a 
letter to his king just after the treaty was concluded, in 
which he uttered this notable prophecy : " This federal 
republic is born a pygmy. A day will come when it will 
be a giant, even a colossus, formidable in these countries. 
Liberty of conscience, the facility for establishing a new pop- 
ulation on immense lands, as well as the advantages of the 
new government, will draw thither farmers and artisans from 
all the nations. In a few years we shall watch with grief 
the tyrannical existence of this same colossus." The letter 
went on to predict that the Americans would presently get 
possession of Florida and attack Mexico. Similar arguments 
were doubtless used by Aranda in his interviews with Ver- 
gennes, and France, as well as Spain, sought to prevent the 
growth of the dreaded colossus. To this end Vergennes 



178: 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



19 



maintained that the Americans ought to recognize the Que- 
bec Act, and give up to England all the territory north of 
the Ohio River. The region south of this limit should, he 
thought, be made an Indian territory, and placed under the 
protection of Spain and the United States. A line was to 
be drawn from the mouth of the Cumberland River, follow- 
ing that stream about as far as the site of Nashville, thence 




(l^(^'r.9e9<z c^. 






running southward to the Tennessee, thence curving east- 
ward nearly to the Alleghanies, and descending through 
what is now eastern Alabama to the Florida line. The ter- 
ritory to the east of this irregular line was to be under the 
protection of the United States ; the territory to the west 
of it was to be under the protection of Spain. In this divi- 
sion, the settlers beyond the mountains would retain their 
connection with the United States, which would not touch 
the Mississippi River at any point. Vergennes held that 
this was all the Americans could reasonably demand, and he 
agreed with Aranda that they had as yet gained no foothold 
upon the eastern bank of the great river, unmindful of the 



20 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

fact that at that very moment the fortresses at Cahokia and 
Kaskaskia were occupied by Virginian garrisons. 

Upon another important point the views of the French 
government were directly opposed to American interests. 
_, ,, The right to catch fish on the banks of Newfound- 

The New- ^ 

foundiand land had been shared by treaty between France 
and England ; and the New England fishermen, 
as subjects of the king of Great Britain, had participated in 
this privilege. The matter was of very great importance, 
not only to New England, but to the United States in 
general. Not only were the fisheries a source of lucrative 
trade to the New England people, but they were the training- 
school of a splendid race of seamen, the nursery of naval 
heroes whose exploits were by and by to astonish the world. 
To deprive the Americans of their share in these fisheries 
was to strike a serious blow at the strength and resources 
of the new nation. The British government was not inclined 
to grant the privilege, and on this point Vergennes took 
sides with England, in order to establish a claim upon her 
for concessions advantageous to France in some other quar- 
ter. With these views, Vergennes secretly aimed at delaying 
the negotiations ; for as long as hostilities were kept up, he 
might hope to extort from his American allies a recognition 
of the Spanish claims and a renouncement of the fisheries, 
simply by threatening to send them no further assistance 
in men or money. In order to retard the proceedings, he 
refused to take any steps whatever until the independence of 
the United States should first be irrevocably acknowledged 
by Great Britain, without reference to the final settlement of 
the rest of the treaty. In this Vergennes was supported by 
Franklin, as well as by Jay, who had lately arrived in Paris 
to take part in the negotiations. But the reasons of the 
American commissioners were very different from those of 
Vergennes. They feared that, if they began to treat before 
independence was acknowledged, they would be unfairly dealt 
with by France and Spain, and unable to gain from England 
the concessions upon which they were determined. 




MAP OF NORTH AMERICA, 

Showing the Boundaries of the UNITED STATES, CANADA, and the SPANISH POSSES- 
SIONS according to the proposals of the Court of France in I 782. 



1782 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 21 

Jay soon began to suspect the designs of the French min- 
ister. He found that he was sending M. de Rayneval as a 
secret emissary to Lord Shelburne under an assumed name ; 
he ascertained that the right of the United States to the 
Mississippi valley was to be denied ; and he got hold of a 
dispatch from Marbois, the French secretary of legation at 
Philadelphia, to Vergennes, opposing the American jay detects 
claim to the Newfoundland fisheries. As soon as gfygr.^'"^^ 
Jay learned these facts, he sent his friend Dr. Ben- genres 
jamin Vaughan to Lord Shelburne to put him on his guard, 
and while reminding him that it was greatly for the interest 
of England to dissolve the alliance between America and 
France, he declared himself ready to begin the negotiations 
without waiting for the recognition of independence, pro- 
vided that Oswald's commission should speak of the thirteen 
United States of America, instead of calling them colonies 
and naming them separately. This decisive step was taken 
by Jay on his own responsibility, and without the knowledge 
of Franklin, who had been averse to anything like a separate 
negotiation with England. It served to set the ball rolling 
at once. After meeting the messengers from Jay and Ver- 
gennes, Lord Shelburne at once perceived the antagonism 
that had arisen between the allies, and promptly took advan- 
tage of it. A new commission was made out for Oswald, in 
which the British government first described our country as 
the United States ; and early in October negotiations were 
begun and proceeded rapidly. On the part of England, the 
affair was conducted by Oswald, assisted by Strachey and 
Fitzherbert, who had succeeded Grenville. In the course of 
the month John Adams arrived in Paris, and a few weeks 
later Henry Laurens, who had been exchanged for Lord 
Cornwallis and released from the Tower, was added to the 
company. Adams had a holy horror of Frenchmen in gen- 
eral, and of Count Vergennes in particular. He shared that 
common but grossly mistaken view of Frenchmen which 
regards them as shallow, frivolous, and insincere ; and he 
was indignant at the position taken by Vergennes on the 



22 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

question of the fisheries. In this, John Adams felt as all 
New Englanders felt, and he realized the importance of the 
question from a national point of view, as became the man 
who in later years was to earn lasting renown as one of the 
chief founders of the American navy. His behaviour on 
reaching Paris was characteristic. It is said that he left 
Count Vergennes to learn of his arrival through the news- 
papers. It was certainly some time before he called upon 
him, and he took occasion, besides, to express his opinions 
about republics and monarchies in terms which courtly 
Frenchmen thought very rude. 

The arrival of Adams fully decided the matter as to a 
separate negotiation with England. He agreed with Jay 
that Vergennes should be kept as far as possible in the dark 
until everything was cut and dried, and Franklin was reluc- 
tantly obliged to yield. The treaty of alliance between 
France and the United States had expressly stipulated that 
Franklin neither power should ever make peace without the 
b7jay and co^sent of the other, and in view of this Franklin 
Adams -^vas loath to do anything which might seem like 
abandoning the ally whose timely interposition had alone 
enabled Washington to achieve the crowning triumph of 
Yorktown. In justice to Vergennes, it should be borne in 
mind that he had kept strict faith with us in regard to every 
point that had been expressly stipulated ; and Franklin, who 
felt that he understood Frenchmen better than his colleagues, 
was naturally unwilling to seem behindhand in this respect. 
At the same time, in regard to matters not expressly stipu- 
lated, Vergennes was clearly playing a sharp game against 
us ; and it is undeniable that, without departing technically 
from the obligations of the alliance. Jay and Adams — two 
men as honourable as ever lived — played a very sharp de- 
fensive game against him. The traditional French subtlety 
was no match for Yankee shrewdness. The treaty with 
England was not concluded until the consent of France 
had been obtained, and thus the express stipulation was re- 
spected ; but a thorough and detailed agreement was reached 



1782 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



23 



as to what the purport of the treaty should be, while our 
not too friendly ally was kept in the dark. The annals of 
modern diplomacy have afforded few stranger spectacles. 
With the indispensable aid of France we had just got the 
better of England in fight, and now we proceeded amicably 
to divide territory and commercial privileges with the enemy. 




c/Vt^^ (:^7^Ji/yryi/S 



and to make arrangements in which the ally was virtually 
ignored. It ceases to be a paradox, however, when we 
remember that with the change of government in England 
some essential conditions of the case were changed. The 
England against which we had fought was the hostile Eng- 
land of Lord North ; the England with which we were now 
dealing was the friendly England of Shelburne and Pitt. 



24 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

For the moment, the English race, on both sides of the 
Atlantic, was united in its main purpose and divided only by- 
questions of detail, while the rival colonizing power, which 
sought to work in a direction contrary to the general in- 
terests of English-speaking people, was in great measure 
disregarded. 

As soon as the problem was thus virtually reduced to a 
nesfotiation between the American commissioners and Lord 
Shelburne's ministry, the air was cleared in a moment. 
The principal questions had already been discussed between 
Franklin and Oswald. Independence being first acknow- 
ledged, the question of boundaries came up for settlement. 
Thesepa- England had little interest in regaining the terri- 
rateAmeri- tory bctwecn the Alleghanics and the Mississippi, 

can treaty, ■' . . ^ ^ 

as agreed the forts in which were already held by American 
Bounda- soldicrs, and she relinquislied all claim upon it. 
™^ The Mississippi River thus became the dividing 

line between the United States and the Spanish possessions, 
and its navigation was made free alike to British and Amer- 
ican ships. Franklin's suggestion of a cession of Canada 
and Nova Scotia was abandoned without discussion. It was 
agreed that the boundary line should start at the mouth of 
the river St. Croix, and, running to a point near Lake Mada- 
waska in the highlands separating the Atlantic watershed 
from that of the St. Lawrence, should follow these highlands 
to the head of the Connecticut River, and then descend the 
middle of the river to the forty-fifth parallel, thence running 
westward and through the centre of the water communica- 
tions of the Great Lakes to the Lake of the Woods, thence 
to the source of the Mississippi, which was supposed to be 
west of this lake. This line was marked in red ink by 
Oswald on one of Mitchell's maps of North America, to 
serve as a memorandum establishing the precise meaning of 
the words used in the description. It ought to have been 
accurately fi.xed in its details by surveys made upon the 
spot ; but no commissioners were appointed for this purpose. 
The language relating to the northeastern portion of the 



1782 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



25 




BOUNDARY MONUMENT ON THE ST. CROIX 



boundary contained some inaccuracies which were revealed 
by later surv^eys, and the map used by Oswald was lost. 
Hence a further question arose between Great Britain and 
the United States, which was finally settled by the Ashbur- 
ton treaty in 1842. 

The Americans retained the rii^ht of catching fish on the 
banks of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
but lost the right of drying their fish on the New- 2. Fisher- 
foundland coast. On the other hand, no permis- ^erciaT^" 
sion was given to British subjects to fish on the intercourse 
coasts of the United States. As regarded commercial inter- 



26 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

course, Jay sought to establish complete reciprocal freedom 
between the two countries, and a clause was proposed to 
the effect that " all British merchants and merchant ships, 
on the one hand, shall enjoy in the United States, and in all 
places belonging to them, the same protection and commer- 
cial privileges, and be liable only to the same charges and 
duties as their own merchants and merchant ships ; and, on 
the other hand, the merchants and merchant ships of the 
United States shall enjoy in all places belonging to his Bri- 
tannic Majesty the same protection and commercial privi- 
leges, and be liable only to the same charges and duties as 
British merchants and merchant ships, saving always to the 
chartered trading companies of Great Britain such exclusive 
use and trade, and the respective ports and establishments, 
as neither the other subjects of Great Britain nor any the 
most favoured nation participate in." Unfortunately for 
both countries, this liberal provision was rejected on the 
ground that the ministry had no authority to interfere with 
the Navigation Act. 

Only two questions were now left to be disposed of, — the 
question of paying private debts, and that of compensating 
the American loyalists for the loss of property and general 
rough treatment which they had suffered. There were many 
3, Private old dcbts Outstanding from American to British 
'^^^^^ merchants. These had been for the most part 

incurred before 1775, and while many honest debtors, im- 
poverished during the war, felt unable to pay, there were 
doubtless many others who were ready to take advantage of 
circumstances and refuse the payment which they were per- 
fectly able to make. It was scarcely creditable to us that 
any such question should have arisen. Franklin, indeed, 
argued that these debts were more than fully offset by dam- 
ages done to private property by British soldiers : as, for 
example, in the wanton raids on the coasts of Connecticut 
and Virginia in 1779, or in Prevost's buccaneering march 
against Charleston. To cite these atrocities, however, as a 
reason for the non-payment of debts legitimately owed to 




Jt/z^ 



1782 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 27 

innocent merchants in London and Glasgow was to argue 
as if two wrongs could make a right. The strong sense of 
John Adams struck at once to the root of the matter. He 
declared " he had no notion of cheating anybody. The ques- 
tions of paying debts and compensating Tories were two." 
This terse statement carried the day, and it was finally de- 
cided that all private debts on either side, whether incurred 
before or after 1775, remained still binding, and must be 
discharged at their full value in sterling money. 

The last question of all was the one most difficult to 
settle. There were many loyalists in the United States who 
had sacrificed everything in the support of the British cause, 
and it was unquestionably the duty of the British govern- 
ment to make every possible effort to insure them against 
further injury, and, if practicable, to make good their losses 
already incurred. From Virginia and the New England 
states, where they were few in number, they had mostly 
fled, and their estates had been confiscated. In New York 
and South Carolina, where they remained in great numbers, 
they were still waging a desultory war with the patriots, 
which far exceeded in cruelty and bitterness the struggle 
between the regular armies. In many cases they had, at 
the solicitation of the British government, joined the invad- 
ing army, and been organized into companies and regiments. 
The regular troops defeated at King's Mountain, 
and those whom Arnold took with him to Virginia, pensation 
were nearly all American loyalists. Lord Shel- ° °^^ '^ ^ 
burne felt that it would be wrong to abandon these unfortu- 
nate men to the vengeance of their fellow countrymen, and 
he insisted that the treaty should contain an amnesty clause 
providing for the restoration of the Tories to their civil 
rights, with compensation for their confiscated property. 
However disagreeable such a course might seem to the vic- 
torious Americans, there were many precedents for it in 
European history. It had indeed come to be customary at 
the close of civil wars, and the effect of such a policy had 
invariably been good. Cromwell, in his hour of triumph, 



28 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

inflicted no disabilities upon his political enemies ; and when 
Charles II. was restored to the throne the healing effect of 
the amnesty act then passed was so great that historians 
sometimes ask what in the world had become of that Puri- 
tan party which a moment before had seemed supreme in 
the land. At the close of the war of the Spanish Succes- 
sion, the rebellious people of Catalonia were indemnified for 
their losses, at the request of England, and with a similar 
good effect. In view of such European precedents, Ver- 
gennes agreed with Shelburne as to the propriety of secur- 
ing compensation and further immunity for the Tories in 
America. John Adams insinuated that the French minister 
took this course because he foresaw that the presence of the 
Tories in the United States would keep the people perpetu- 
ally divided into a French party and an English party ; but 
such a suspicion was quite uncalled for. There is no reason 
to suppose that in this instance Vergennes had anything at 
heart but the interests of humanity and justice. 

On the other hand, the Americans brought forward very 
strong reasons why the Tories should not be indemnified by 
Congress. First, as Franklin urged, many of them had, by 
their misrepresentations to the British government, helped 
to stir up the disputes which led to the war ; and as they 
had made their bed, so they must lie in it. Secondly, such 
of them as had been concerned in burning and plundering 
defenceless villages, and wielding the tomahawk in concert 
with bloodthirsty Indians, deserved no compassion. It was 
rather for them to make compensation for the misery they 
had wrought. Thirdly, the confiscated Tory property had 
passed into the hands of purchasers who had bought it in 
good faith and could not now be dispossessed, and in many 
cases it had been distributed here and there and lost sight 
of. An estimate of the gross amount might be made, and 
a corresponding sum appropriated for indemnification. But, 
fourthly, the country was so impoverished by the war that its 
own soldiers, the brave men whose heroic exertions had won 
the independence of the United States, were at this moment 



178: 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



29 



in sore distress for the want of the pay which Congress 
could not give them, but to which its honour was sacredly 
pledged. The American government was clearly bound to 
pay its just debts to the friends who had suffered so much in 
its behalf before it should proceed to entertain a chimerical 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



scheme for satisfying its enemies. For, fifthly, any such 
scheme was in the present instance clearly chimerical. 
The acts under which Tory property had been confiscated 
were acts of state legislatures, and Congress had no juris- 
diction over such a matter. If restitution was to be made, 
it must be made by the separate states. The question could 
not for a moment be entertained by the general government 
or its agents. 

Upon these points the American commissioners were 
united and inexorable. Various suggestions were offered in 



30 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

vain by the British. Their troops still held the city of New 
York, and it was doubtful whether the Americans could hope 
to capture it in another campaign. It was urged that Eng- 
land might fairly claim in exchange for New York a round 
sum of money wherewith the Tories might be indemnified. 
It was further urged that certain unappropriated lands in the 
Mississippi valley might be sold for the same purpose. But 
the Americans would not hear of buying one of their own 
cities, whose independence was already acknowledged by the 
first article of the treaty which recognized the independence 
of the United States ; and as for the western lands, they 
were wanted as a means of paying our own war debts and 
providing for our veteran soldiers. Several times Shelburne 
sent word to Paris that he would break off the negotiation 
unless the loyalist claims were in some way recognized. 
But the Americans were obdurate. They had one advan- 
tage, and knew it. Parliament was soon to meet, and it was 
doubtful whether Lord Shelburne could command a suffi- 
cient majority to remain long in office. He was, accord- 
ingly, very anxious to complete the treaty of peace, or at 
least to detach America from the French alliance, as soon 
as possible. The American commissioners were also eager 
to conclude the treaty. They had secured very favourable 
terms, and were loath to run any risk of spoiling what had 
been done. Accordingly, they made a proposal in the form 
of a compromise, which nevertheless settled the point in 
their favour. The matter, they said, was beyond the juris- 
diction of Congress, but they agreed that Congress should 
recommend to the several states to desist from further pro- 
ceedings against the Tories, and to reconsider their laws 
on this subject ; it should further recommend that persons 
with claims upon confiscated lands might be authorized to 
use legal means of recovering them, and to this end might 
be allowed to pass to and fro without personal risk for the 
term of one year. The British commissioners accepted this 
compromise, unsatisfactory as it was, because it was really 
impossible to obtain anything better without throwing the 




o 




1782 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 31 

whole negotiation overboard. The constitutional difficulty 
was a real one indeed. As Adams told Oswald, if the point 
were further insisted upon, Congress would be obliged to 
refer it to the several states, and no one could tell how long 
it might be before any decisive result could be reached in 
this way. Meanwhile, the state of war would continue, and 
it would be cheaper for England to indemnify the loyalists 
herself than to pay the war bills for a single month. Frank- 
lin added that, if the loyalists were to be indemnified, it 
would be necessary also to reckon up the damage they had 
done in burning houses and kidnapping slaves, and then 
strike a balance between the two accounts ; and he gravely 
suggested that a special commission might be appointed for 
this purpose. At the prospect of endless discussion which 
this suggestion involved, the British commissioners gave 
way and accepted the American terms, although they were 
frankly told that too much must not be expected from the 
recommendation of Congress. The articles were signed on 
the 30th of November, six days before the meeting of Parlia- 
ment. Hostilities in America were to cease at once, and 
upon the completion of the treaty the British fleets and 
armies were to be immediately withdrawn from every place 
which they held within the limits of the United States, A 
supplementary and secret article provided that if England, 
on making peace with Spain, should recover West Florida, 
the northern boundary of that province should be zi line 
running due east from the mouth of the Yazoo River to 
the Chattahoochee. 

Thus by skilful diplomacy the Americans had gained all 
that could reasonably be asked, while the work of making a 
general peace was greatly simplified. It was declared in the 
preamble that the articles here signed were provisional, and 
that the treaty was not to take effect until terms of peace 
should be agreed on between England and France. Without 
delay, Franklin laid the whole matter, except the secret arti- 
cle, before Vergennes, who forthwith accused the Americans 
of ingratitude and bad faith. Franklin's reply, that at the 



32 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 



worst they could only be charged with want of dijDlomatic 
Ver ennes courtesy, has sometimcs been condemned as insin- 
does not ccrc, biit on inadequate grounds. He had con- 

likethe ' . , , ^ *? 

way in scutcd With reluctancc to the separate negotiation, 
has been becausc he did not wish to give France any possible 
done ground for complaint, whether real or ostensible. 

There does not seem, however, to have been sufficient justi- 
fication for so grave a charge as was made by Vergennes. If 
the French negotiations had failed until after the overthrow 
of the Shelburne ministry ; if Fox, on coming into power, had 
taken advantage of the American treaty to continue the war 
against France ; and if under such circumstances the Ameri- 
cans had abandoned their ally, then undoubtedly they would 
have become guilty of ingratitude and treachery. There is 
no reason for supposing that they would ever have done so, 
had the circumstances arisen. Their preamble made it im- 
possible for them honourably to abandon France until a full 
peace should be made, and more than this France could not 
reasonably demand. The Americans had kept to the strict 
letter of their contract, as Vergennes had kept to the strict 
letter of his, and beyond this they meted out exactly the 
same measure of frankness which they received. To say 
that our debt of gratitude to France was such as to require 
us to acquiesce in her scheme for enriching our enemy Spain 
at our expense is simply childish. Franklin was undoubtedly 
right. The commissioners may have been guilty of a breach 
of diplomatic courtesy, but nothing more. Vergennes might 
be sarcastic about it for the moment, but the cordial rela- 
tions between France and America remained undisturbed. 
On the part of the Americans the treaty of Paris was one 
of the most brilliant triumphs in the whole history 
diplomatic of modcm diplomacy. Had the affair been man- 
^"^ °'^^ aged by men of ordinary ability, some of the great- 
est results of the Revolutionary War would probably have 
been lost ; the new republic would have been cooped up 
between the Atlantic Ocean and the Alleghany Mountains ; 
our westAvard expansion would have been impossible without 



178: 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



33 



further warfare in which European powers would have been 
involved ; and the formation of our Federal Union would 
doubtless have been effectively hindered, if not, indeed, alto- 
gether prevented. To the grand triumph the varied talents 
of Franklin, Adams, and Jay alike contributed. To the 





latter is due the credit of detecting and baffling the sinister 
designs of France ; but without the tact of Franklin this 
probably could not have been accomplished without offend- 
ing France in such wise as to spoil everything. It is, how- 
ever, to the rare discernment and boldness of Jay, admirably 
seconded by the sturdy Adams, that the chief praise is due. 
The turning-point of the whole affair was the visit of Dr. 
Vaughan to Lord Shelburne. The foundation of success 



34 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

was the separate negotiation with England, and here there 
had stood in the way a more formidable obstacle than the 
mere reluctance of Franklin. The chevalier Luzerne and his 
secretary Marbois had been busy with Congress, and that 
body had sent well-meant but silly and pusillanimous instruc- 
tions to its commissioners at Paris to be guided in all things 
by the wishes of the French court. To disregard such in- 
structions required all the lofty courage for which Jay and 
Adams were noted, and for the moment it brought upon 
them something like a rebuke from Congress, conveyed in a 
letter from Robert Livingston. As Adams said, in his vehe- 
ment way, " Congress surrendered their own sovereignty 
into the hands of a French minister. Blush ! bl\ish ! ye 
guilty records ! blush and perish ! It is glory to have broken 
such infamous orders." True enough; the commissioners 
knew that in diplomacy, as in warfare, to the agent at a 
distance from his principal some discretionary power must 
be allowed. They assumed great responsibility, and won a 
victory of incalculable grandeur. 

The course of the Americans produced no effect upon the 
terms obtained by France, but it seriously modified the case 
The Span- with Spain. Unable to obtain Gibraltar by arms, 
ish treaty ^^iRt powcr hoped to get it by diplomacy ; and with 
the support of France she seemed disposed to make the 
cession of the great fortress an ultimatum, without which 
the war must go on. Shelburne, on his part, was willing to 
exchange Gibraltar for an island in the West Indies ; but it 
was difficult to get the cabinet to agree on the matter, and 
the scheme was violently opposed by the people, for the 
heroic defence of the stronghold had invested it with a halo 
of romance and endeared it to every one. Nevertheless, so 
persistent was Spain, and so great the desire for peace on 
the part of the ministry, that they had resolved to exchange 
Gibraltar for Guadaloupe, when the news arrived of the 
treaty with America. The ministers now took a bold stand, 
and refused to hear another word about giving up Gibraltar. 
Spain scolded, and threatened a renewal of hostilities, but 



1782 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



35 



B>ance was unwilling to give further assistance, and the mat- 
ter was settled by England's surrendering East Florida, and 
allowing the Spaniards to keep West Florida and Minorca, 
which were already in their hands. 

By the treaty with France, the West India islands of 
Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Christopher, Dominica, Nevis, and 
Montserrat were restored to England, which in turn 

The 

restored St. Lucia and ceded Tobago to France. French 
The French were allowed to fortify Dunkirk, and ^^^ ^ 
received some slight concessions in India and Africa ; they 



n 




retained their share in the Newfoundland fisheries, and re- 
covered the little neighbouring islands of St. Pierre and 
Miquelon. For the fourteen hundred million francs which 
France had expended in the war, she had the satisfaction of 
detaching the American colonies from England, thus inflict- 



36 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

ing a blow which it was confidently hoped would prove fatal 
to the maritime power of her ancient rival ; but beyond this 
short-lived satisfaction, the fallaciousness of which events 
were soon to show, she obtained very little. On the 20th 
of January, 1783, the preliminaries of peace were signed 
between England, on the one hand, and France and Spain, 
on the other. A truce was at the same time concluded with 
Holland, which was soon followed by a peace, in which most 
of the conquests on either side were restored. 

A second English ministry was now about to be wrecked 
on the rock of this group of treaties. Lord Shelburne's 
government had at no time been a strong one. He had 
made many enemies by his liberal and reforming measures, 
and he had alienated most of his colleagues by his reserved 
demeanour and seeming want of confidence in them. In 
December several of the ministers resigned. The strength 
of parties in the House of Commons was thus quaintly reck- 
oned by Gibbon : "Minister 140; Reynard 90 ; Boreas 120; 
the rest unknown or uncertain." But "Reynard" and 
" Boreas " were now about to join forces in one of the stran- 
gest coalitions ever known in the history of politics. 

Coalition *^ ^ ^ 

of Fox No Statesman ever attacked another more fero- 
ciously than Fox had attacked North during the 
past ten years. He had showered abuse upon him ; accused 
him of "treachery and falsehood," of "public perfidy," and 
" breach of a solemn specific promise ; " and had even gone 
so far as to declare to his face a hope that he would be called 
upon to expiate his abominable crimes upon the scaffold. 
Within a twelvemonth he had thus spoken of Lord North 
and his colleagues : " From the moment when I shall make 
any terms with one of them, I will rest satisfied to be called 
the most infamous of mankind. I would not for an instant 
think of a coalition with men who, in every public and pri- 
vate transaction as ministers, have shown themselves void 
of every principle of honour and honesty. In the hands of 
such men I would not trust my honour even for a moment." 
Still more recently, when at a loss for words strong enough 



1783 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



37 



to express his belief in the wickedness of Shelburne, he 
declared that he had no better opinion of that man than to 
deem him capable of forming an alliance with North. We 
may judge, then, of the general amazement when, in the 
middle of February, it turned out that Fox had himself done 
this very thing. An "ill-omened marriage," William Pitt 
called it in the House of Commons. "If this ill-omened 
marriage is not already solemnized, I know a just and lawful 
impediment, and in the name of the public safety I here 
forbid the banns." Throughout the country the indignation 
was great. Many people had blamed Fox for not following 
up his charges by actually bringing articles of impeachment 
against Lord North. That the two enemies should thus 
suddenly become leagued in friendship seemed utterly mon- 
strous. It injured Fox extremely in 
the opinion of the country, and it in- 
jured North still more, for it seemed 
like a betrayal of the king on his part, 
and his forgiveness of so many insults 
looked mean-spirited. It does not ap- 
pear, however, that there was really 
any strong personal animosity between 
North and Fox. They were both men 
of very amiable character, and almost 
incapable of cherishing resentment. 
The language of parliamentary orators 
was habitually violent, and the huge 
quantities of wine which gentlemen 
in those days used to drink may have 

helped to make it extravagant. The excessive vehemence 
of political invective often deprived it of half its effect. One 
day, after Fox had exhausted his vocabulary of abuse upon 
Lord George Germain, Lord North said to him, " You were 
in very high feather to-day, Charles, and I am glad you did 
not fall upon me." On another occasion, it is said that 
while Fox was thundering against North's unexampled tur- 
pitude, the object of his furious tirade cosily dropped off to 




LORD NORTH AS IGNAVIA 



38 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

sleep. Gibbon, who was the friend of both statesmen, ex- 
pressly declares that they bore each other no ill-will. But 
while thus alike indisposed to harbour bitter thoughts, there 
was one man for whom both Fox and North felt an abiding 
distrust and dislike ; and that man was Lord Shelburne, the 
prime minister. 

As a political pupil of Burke, Fox shared that statesman's 
distrust of the whole school of Lord Chatham, to which 
Shelburne belonged. In many respects these statesmen 
were far more advanced than Burke, but they did not suffi- 
ciently realize the importance of checking the crown by 
means of a united and powerful ministry. Fox thoroughly 
understood that much of the mischief of the past twenty 
years, including the loss of America, had come from the 
system of weak and divided ministries, which gave the king 
such great opportunity for wreaking his evil will. He had 
himself been a member of such a ministry, which had fallen 
seven months ago. When the king singled out Shelburne 
for his confidence. Fox naturally concluded that Shelburne 
was to be made to play the royal game, as North had been 
made to play it for so many years. This was very unjust 
to Shelburne, but there is no doubt that Fox was perfectly 
honest in his belief. It seemed to him that the present 
state of things must be brought to an end, at whatever cost. 
A ministry strong enough to curb the king could be formed 
only by a coalescence of two out of the three existing par- 
ties. A coalescence of Old and New Whigs had been tried 
last spring, and failed. It only remained now to try the 
effect of a coalescence of Old Whigs and Tories. 

Such was doubtless the chief motive of Fox in this ex- 
traordinary move. The conduct of North seems harder to 
explain, but it was probably due to a reaction of feeling on 
his part. He had done violence to his own convictions out 
of weak compassion for George III., and had carried on the 
American war for four years after he had been thoroughly 
convinced that peace ought to be made. Remorse for this 
is said to have haunted him to the end of his life. When in 




^•^- 



\-,^i^- 



THE LORD OF THE VINEYARD 



40 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

his old age he became blind, he bore his misfortune with his 
customary lightness of heart ; and one day, meeting the 
veteran Barre, who had also lost his eyesight, he exclaimed, 
with his unfailing wit, " Well, colonel, in spite of all our dif- 
ferences, I suppose there are no two men in England who 
would be gladder to see each other than you and I." But 
while Lord North could jest about his bhndness, the memory 
of his ill-judged subservience to the king was something that 
he could not laugh away, and among his nearest friends he 
was sometimes heard to reproach himself bitterly. When, 
therefore, in 1783, he told Fox that he fully agreed with him 
in thinking that the royal power ought to be curbed, he was 
doubtless speaking the truth. No man had a better right to 
such an opinion than that which he had gained through sore 
experience. In his own ministry, as he said to Fox, he took 
the system as he found it, and had not vigour and resolution 
enough to put an end to it ; but he was now quite convinced 
that in such a country as England, while the king should be 
treated with all outward show of respect, he ought on no 
account to be allowed to exercise any real power. 

Now this was in 1783 the paramount political question in 
England, just as much as the question of secession was para- 
mount in the United States in 1861. Other questions could 
be postponed ; the question of curbing the king could not. 
Upon this all-important point North had come to agree with 
Fox ; and as the principal motive of their coalition may be 
thus explained, the historian is not called upon to lay too 
much stress upon the lower motives assigned in profusion 
by their political enemies. This explanation, however, does 
not quite cover the case. The mass of the Tories would 
never follow North in an avowed attempt to curb the king, 
but they agreed with the followers of Fox, though not with 
Fox himself, in holy horror of parliamentary reform, and 
were alarmed by a recent declaration of Shelburne that the 
suffrage must be extended so as to admit a hundred new 
county members. Thus while the two leaders were urged 
to coalescence by one motive, their followers were largely 



1783 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



41 



swayed by another, and this added much to the mystery and 
general unintelligibleness of the movement. In taking this 
step Fox made the mistake which was characteristic of the 
Old Whig party. He gave too little heed to the great 
public outside the walls of the House of Commons. The 




coalition, once made, was very strong in Parliament, but it 
mystified and scandalized the people, and this popular disap- 
proval by and by made it easy for the king to overthrow it. 

It was agreed to choose the treaty as the occasion for the 
combined attack upon the Shelburne ministry. North, as 
the minister who had conducted the unsuccessful war, was 
bound to oppose the treaty, in any case. It would not do 
for him to admit that better terms could not have ^ ,, , 

Fall of 

been made. The treaty was also very unpopular sheiburne's 

• 1 T^ > I'll • 1 Ti ministry 

with l' OX s party, and with the nation at large. It 

was thought that too much territory had been conceded to 



42 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

the Americans, and fault was found with the article on the 
fisheries. But the point which excited most indignation was 
the virtual abandonment of the loyalists, for here the honour 
of England was felt to be at stake. On this ground the 
treaty was emphatically condemned by Burke, Sheridan, and 
Wilberforce, no less than by North. It was ably defended 
in the Commons by Pitt, and in the Lords by Shelburne 
himself, who argued that he had but the alternative of ac- 
cepting the terms as they stood, or continuing the war ; and 
since it had come to this, he said, without spilling a drop of 
blood, or incurring one fifth of the expense of a year's cam- 
paign, the comfort and happiness of the American loyalists 
could be easily secured. By this he meant that, should 
America fail to make good their losses, it was far better for 
England to indemnify them herself than to prolong indefi- 
nitely a bloody and ruinous struggle. As we shall hereafter 
see, this liberal and enlightened policy was the one which 
England really pursued, so far as practicable, and her honour 
was completely saved. That Shelburne and Pitt were quite 
right there can now be little doubt. But argument was of no 
avail against the resistless power of the coalition. On the 
17th of February Lord John Cavendish moved an amend- 
ment to the ministerial address on the treaty, refusing to 
approve it. On the 21st he moved a further amendment 
condemning the treaty. Both motions were carried, and 
on the 24th Lord Shelburne resigned. He did not dissolve 
Parliament and appeal to the country, partly because he 
was aware of his personal unpopularity, and partly because, 
in spite of the general disgust at the coalition, there was little 
doubt that on the particular question of the treaty the pub- 
lic opinion agreed with the majority in Parliament, and not 
with the ministry. For this reason, Pitt, though personally 
popular, saw that it was no time for him to take the first 
place in the government, and when the king proceeded to 
offer it to him he declined. 

For more than five weeks, while the treasury was nearly 
empty, and the question of peace or war still hung in the 



1783 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



43 



balance, England was without a regular government, while 
the angry king went hunting for some one who would con- 
sent to be his prime minister. He was determined not to 
submit to the coalition. He was naturally enraged The king's 
at Lord North for turning against him. Meeting ^"^^^^ 
one day North's father. Lord Guilford, he went up to him, 
tragically wringing his hands, and exclaimed in accents of 
woe, " Did I ever think, my Lord Guilford, that your son 
would thus have betrayed me into the hands of Mr. Fox.-'" 
He appealed in vain to Lord Gower, and then to Lord 
Temple, to form a ministry. Lord Gower suggested that 



^^^^ 




FACSIMILE SIGNATURES OF THE TREATY OF PEACE 



44 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 



perhaps Thomas Pitt, cousin of Wilham, might be wilhng to 
serve. "I desired him," said the king, "to apply to Mr. 
Thomas Pitt, or Mr. Thomas anybody." It was of no use. 
By the 2d of April Parliament had become furious at the 
delay, and George was obliged to yield. The Duke of 
Portland was brought in as nominal prime minister, with Fox 
as foreign secretary. North as secretary for home and colo- 
nies. Cavendish as chancellor of the exchequer, and Keppel 
as first lord of the admiralty. The only Tory in the cabinet, 
excepting North, was Lord Stormont, who became president 
of the council. The commissioners, Fitzherbert and Oswald, 
were recalled from Paris, and the Duke of Manchester and 
David Hartley, son of the great philosopher, were appointed 
in their stead. Negotiations continued through the spring 
and summer. Attempts were made to change some of the 
articles, especially the obnoxious article concerning the 
loyalists, but all to no purpose. Hartley's attempt to nego- 
tiate a mutually advantageous commercial treaty with 
America also unfortunately came to nothing. The 
is adopted^ definitive treaty which was finally signed on the 
the^coali-^^ 3d of September, 1783, was an exact transcript of 
tion minis- ^^ie trcatv which Shelburne had made, and for 

try, which -' _ 

presently making which the present ministers had succeeded 
in turning him out of office. No more emphatic 
justification of Shelburne's conduct of this business could 
possibly have been obtained. 

The coalition ministry did not long survive the final sign- 
ing of the treaty. The events of the next few months are 
curiously instructive as showing the quiet and stealthy way 
in which a political revolution may be consummated in a 
thoroughly conservative and constitutional country. Early 
in the winter session of Parliament Fox brought in his 
famous bill for organizing the government of the great 
empire which Clive and Hastings had built up in India. 
Popular indignation at the ministry had been strengthened 
by its adopting the same treaty of peace for the making of 
which it had assaulted Shelburne ; and now, on the passage 



46 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

of the India Bill by the House of Commons, there was a 
great outcry. Many provisions of the bill were exceedingly 
unpopular, and its chief object was alleged to be the concen- 
tration of the immense patronage of India into the hands 
of the old Whig families. With the popular feeling thus 
warmly enlisted against the ministry, George III. was now 
emboldened to make war on it by violent means ; and, ac- 
cordingly, when the bill came up in the House of Lords, he 
caused it to be announced, by Lord Temple, that any peer 
who should vote in its favour would be regarded as an enemy 
by the king. Four days later the House of Commons, by 
a vote of 153 to 80, resolved that "to report any opinion, 
or pretended opinion, of his majesty upon any bill or other 
proceeding depending in either house of Parliament, with a 
view to influence the votes of the members, is a high crime 
and misdemeanour, derogatory to the honour of the crown, 
a breach of the fundamental privileges of Parliament, and 
subversive of the constitution of this country." A more 
explicit or emphatic defiance to the king would have been 
hard to frame. Two days afterward the Lords rejected 
the India Bill, and on the next day, the i8th of December, 
George turned the ministers out of office. 

In this grave constitutional crisis the king invited William 

Pitt to form a government, and this young statesman, who 

had consistently opposed the coalition, now saw that his 

hour was come. He was more than any one else 

ConstitU- 1 r • r 1 T- > ^• • 1 

tionai crisis, the favountc of the people. Fox s political reiDuta- 
theowr" tion was eclipsed, and North's was destroyed, by 
vktor^of their unseemly alliance. People were sick of the 
Pitt, May, whole statc of things which had accompanied the 
American war. Pitt, who had only come into 
Parliament in 1780, was free from these unpleasant associa- 
tions. The unblemished purity of his life, his incorruptible 
integrity, his rare disinterestedness, and his transcendent 
ability in debate were known to every one. As the worthy 
son of Lord Chatham, whose name was associated with the 
most glorious moment of English history, he was peculiarly 



1783 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 



47 



dear to the people. His position, however, on taking 
supreme office at the instance of a king who had just com- 
mitted an outrageous breach of the constitution, was ex- 
tremely critical, and only the most consummate skill could 
have won from the chaos such a victory as he was about to 




win. When he became first lord of the treasury and chan- 
cellor of the exchequer, in December, 1783, he had barely 
completed his twenty-fifth year. All his colleagues in the 
new cabinet were peers, so that he had to fight single-handed 
in the Commons against the united talents of Burke and 
Sheridan, Fox and North ; and there was a heavy majority 
against him, besides. In view of this adverse majority, it 
was Pitt's constitutional duty to dissolve Parliament and 
appeal to the country. But Fox, unwilling to imperil his 
great majority by a new election, now made the fatal mistake 



48 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, i 

of opposing a dissolution ; thus showing his distrust of the 
people and his dread of their verdict. With consummate 
tact, Pitt allowed the debates to go on till March, and then, 
when the popular feeling in his favour had grown into wild 
enthusiasm, he dissolved Parliament. In the general elec- 
tion which followed, i6o members of the coalition lost their 
seats, and Pitt obtained the greatest majority that has ever 
been given to an English minister. 

Thus was completed the political revolution in England 
which was set on foot by the American victory at York- 
town. Its full significance was only gradually realized. For 
the moment it might seem that it was the king who had 
triumphed. He had shattered the alliance which had been 
formed for the purpose of curbing him, and the result of the 
election had virtually condoned his breach of the constitution. 
This apparent victory, however, had been won only by a 
Overthrow dircct appeal to the people, and all its advantages 
iii/s^""^^^ accrued to the people, and not to George III. 

system of j^^g ingenious system of weak and divided minis- 
personal ° _ -' 
government trics, with himsclf for balauce-whecl, was destroyed. 

For the next seventeen years the real ruler of England was 
not George III., but William Pitt, who, with his great popu- 
lar following, wielded such a power as no English sovereign 
had possessed since the days of Elizabeth. The political 
atmosphere was cleared of intrigue ; and Fox, in the legiti- 
mate attitude of leader of the new opposition, entered upon 
the glorious part of his career. There was now set in motion 
that great work of reform which, hindered for a while by the 
reaction against the French revolutionists, won its decisive 
victory in 1832. Down to the very moment at which Ameri- 
can and British history begin to flow in distinct and separate 
channels, it is interesting to observe how closely they are 
implicated with each other. The victory of the Americans 
not only set on foot the British revolution here described, but 
it figured most prominently in each of the political changes 
that we have witnessed, down to the very eve of the over- 



1784 RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 49 

throw of the coahtion. The system which George III. had 
sought to fasten upon America, in order that he might fasten 
it upon England, was shaken off and shattered by the good 
people of both countries at almost the same moment of 
time. 



CHAPTER II 

THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

"The times that tried men's souls are over," said Thomas 
Paine in the last number of the " Crisis," which he published 
after hearing that the negotiations for a treaty of peace had 
been concluded. The preliminary articles had been signed 
at Paris on the 20th of January, 1783. The news arrived in 
America on the 23d of March, in a letter to the president 
of Congress from Lafayette, who had returned to France 
soon after the victory at Yorktown. A few days later Sir 
Guy Carleton received his orders from the ministry to pro- 
claim a cessation of hostilities by land and sea. A similar 
proclamation made by Congress was formally communicated 
to the army by Washington on the 19th of April, the eighth 
anniversary of the first bloodshed on Lexington green. 
Since Wayne had driven the British from Georgia, early in 
the preceding year, there had been no military operations 
between the regular armies. Guerrilla warfare between 
Whig and Tory had been kept up in parts of South Caro- 
lina and on the frontier of New York, where Thayendanegea 
was still alert and defiant ; while beyond the mountains the 
tomahawk and scalping-knife had been busy, and Washing- 
ton's old friend and comrade, Colonel Crawford, had been 
scorched to death by the firebrands of the red demons ; but 
the armies had sat still, awaiting the peace which every one 
felt sure must speedily come. After Cornwallis's surrender, 
Washington marched his army back to the Hudson, and 
established his headquarters at Newburgh. Rochambeau 
followed somewhat later, and in September joined the Amer- 
icans on the Hudson ; but in December the French army 
marched to Boston, and there embarked for France. After 



1783 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



51 



the formal cessation of hostilities on the 19th of April, 1783, 
Washington granted furloughs to most of his soldiers ; and 
these weather-beaten veterans trudged homeward in all direc- 
tions, in little groups of four or five, depending largely for 
their subsistence on the hospitality of the farm-houses along 




^Jl>. 



oj/n^ 



the road. Arrived at home, their muskets were hung over 
the chimney-piece as trophies for grandchildren to be proud 
of, the stories of their exploits and their sufferings became 
household legends, and they turned the furrows and drove 
the cattle to pasture just as in the "old colony times." 
Their furloughs were equivalent to a full discharge, for on 
the 3d of September the definitive treaty was signed, and 



52 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 



CHAP. II 




FRAUNCES's TAVERN, NEW YORK 

the country was at peace. On the 3d of November the 
T^ , army was formally disbanded, and on the 25th of 

Departure j J ' -> 

of the Brit- that month Sir Guy Carleton's army embarked from 
Nov.'^25f^' New York. Small British garrisons still remained 
''^^ in the frontier posts of Ogdensburg, Oswego, Niag- 

ara, Erie, Sandusky, Detroit, and Mackinaw, but it was 
understood that these places were to be promptly surren- 
dered to the United States. On the 4th of December a 
barge waited at the South Ferry in New York to carry Gen- 
eral Wa.shington across the river to Paulus Hook. He was 
going to Annapolis, where Congress was in session, in order 
to resign his command. At Fraunces's Tavern, near the 
ferry, he took leave of the officers who so long had shared 
his labours. One after another they embraced their beloved 
commander, while there were few dry eyes in the company. 



1783 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



53 



They followed him to the ferry, and watched the departing 
boat with hearts too full for words, and then in solemn 
silence returned up the street. At Philadelphia he handed 
to the comptroller of the treasury a neatly written manu- 
script, containing an accurate statement of his expenses in 
the public service since the day when he took command of 




the army. The sums which Washington had thus spent out 
of his private fortune amounted to $64,315. For his per- 
sonal services he declined to take any pay. At noon of the 
23d, in the presence of Congress and of a throng of ladies 
and gentlemen at Annapolis, the great general gave -^yj^gi^i^g. 
up his command, and requested as an "indulgence" *<?" resigns 
to be allowed to retire into private life. General mand, 
Mifflin, who during the winter of Valley Forge had ^'^' ^^ 
conspired with Gates to undermine the confidence of the 



54 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

people in Washington, was now president of Congress, and it 
was for him to make the reply. "You retire," said Mifflin, 
" from the theatre of action with the blessings of your fel- 
low-citizens, but the glory of your virtues will not terminate 
with your military command ; it will continue to animate 
remotest ages." The next morning Washington hurried 
away to spend Christmas at his pleasant home at Mount 
Vernon, which, save for a few hours in the autumn of 1781, 
he had not set eyes on for more than eight years. His estate 
had suffered from his long absence, and his highest ambition 
was to devote himself to its simple interests. To his friends 
he offered unpretentious hospitality. " My manner of living 
is plain," he said, "and I do not mean to be put out of it. 
A glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready, and 
such as will be content to partake of them are always wel- 
come. Those who expect more will be disappointed." To 
Lafayette he wrote that he was now about to solace himself 
with those tranquil enjoyments of which the anxious soldier 
and the weary statesman know but little. " I have not only 
retired from all public employments, but I am retiring within 
myself, and shall be able to view the solitary walk and tread 
the paths of private life with heartfelt satisfaction. Envious 
of none, I am determined to be pleased with all ; and this, 
my dear friend, being the order of my march, I will move 
gently down the stream of life until I sleep with my fathers." 
In these hopes Washington was to be disappointed. "All 
the world is touched by his republican virtues," wrote Lu- 
zerne to Vergennes, " but it will be useless for him to try 
to hide himself and live the life of a private man : he will 
always be the first citizen of the United States." It indeed 
required no prophet to foretell that the American people 
could not long dispense with the services of this greatest of 
citizens. Washington had already put himself most expli- 
citly on record as the leader of the men who were urging the 
people of the United States toward the formation of a more 
perfect union. The great lesson of the war had not been lost 
on him. Bitter experience of the evils attendant upon the 



17S3 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



55 




MOUNT VERNON 



weak government of the Continental Congress had impressed 
upon his mind the urgent necessity of an immediate and 
thorough reform. On the 8th of June, in view of the ap- 
proaching disbandment of the army, he had addressed to the 
governors and presidents of the several states a circular 
letter, which he wished to have regarded as his legacy to 
the American people. In this letter he insisted upon four 
things as essential to the very existence of the United States 
as an independent power. First, there must be an 
indissoluble union of all the states under a single 
federal government, which must possess the power 
of enforcing its decrees ; for without such author- 
ity it would be a government only in name. Sec- 
ondly, the debts incurred by Congress for the purpose of 
carrying on the war and securing independence must be paid 
to the uttermost farthing. Thirdly, the militia system must 
be organized throughout the thirteen states on uniform prin- 
ciples. Fourthly, the people must be willing to sacrifice, if 
need be, some of their local interests to the common weal ; 
they must discard their local prejudices, and regard one 



His "leg- 
acy " to the 
American 
people, 
June 8, 
1783 



56 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

another as fellow-citizens of a common country, with inter- 
ests in the deepest and truest sense identical. 

The grandeur of Washington's character, his heroic ser- 
vices, and his utter disinterestedness had given him such a 
hold upon the people as few statesmen known to history have 
ever possessed. The noble and sensible words of his circu- 
lar letter were treasured up in the minds of all the best 
people in the country, and when the time for reforming the 
weak and disorderly government had come it was again to 
Washington that men looked as their leader and guide. But 
that time had not yet come. Only through the discipline of 
perplexity and tribulation could the people be brought to 
realize the indispensable necessity of that indissoluble union 
of which Washington had spoken. Thomas Paine was sadly 
mistaken when, in the moment of exultation over the peace, 
he declared that the trying time was ended. The most trying 
time of all was just beginning. It is not too much to say 
that the period of five years following the peace of 1783 was 
the most critical moment in all the history of the American 
people. The dangers from which we were saved in 1788 
were even greater than the dangers from which we were 
saved in 1865. In the War of Secession the love of union 
had come to be so strong that thousands of men gave up 
their lives for it as cheerfully and triumphantly as the mar- 
Absence of ^y^ ^f older times, who sang their hymns of praise 
a senti- evcu while their flesh was withering in the relent- 

inent of ^ . . 

union, and less flamcs. In 1783 the love of union, as a senti- 
danger of" meut for which men would fight, had scarcely come 
anarchy j^^^.^ existcuce among the people of these states. 
The souls of the men of that day had not been thrilled by 
the immortal eloquence of Webster, nor had they gained the 
historic experience which gave to Webster's words their 
meaning and their charm. They had not gained control of 
all the fairest part of the continent, with domains stretching 
more than three thousand miles from ocean to ocean, and so 
situated in geographical configuration and commercial rela- 
tions as to make the very idea of disunion absurd, save for 



1783 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 57 

men in whose minds fanaticism for the moment usurped the 
place of sound judgment. The men of 1783 dwelt in a long, 
straggling series of republics, fringing the Atlantic coast, 
bordered on the north and south and west by two European 
powers whose hostility they had some reason to dread. But 
nine years had elapsed since, in the first Continental Con- 
gress, they had begun to act consistently and independently 
in common, under the severe pressure of a common fear 
and an immediate necessity of action. Even under such cir- 
cumstances the war had languished and come nigh to failure 
simply through the difficulty of insuring concerted action. 
Had there been such a government that the whole power of 
the thirteen states could have been swiftly and vigorously 
wielded as a unit, the British, fighting at such disadvantage 
as they did, might have been driven to their ships in less 
than a year. The length of the war and its worst hardships 
had been chiefly due to want of organization. Congress had 
steadily declined in power and in respectability ; it was much 
weaker at the end of the war than at the beginning ; and 
there was reason to fear that as soon as the common pres- 
sure was removed the need for concerted action would quite 
cease to be felt, and the scarcely formed Union would break 
into pieces. There was the greater reason for such a fear 
in that, while no strong sentiment had as yet grown up in 
favour of union, there was an intensely powerful sentiment 
in favour of local self-government. This feeling was scarcely 
less strong as between states like Connecticut and Rhode 
Island, or Maryland and Virginia, than it was between 
Athens and Megara, Argos and Sparta, in the great days of 
Grecian history. A most wholesome feeling it was, and one 
which needed not so much to be curbed as to be guided in 
the right direction. It was a feeling which was shared by 
some of the foremost Revolutionary leaders, such as Samuel 
Adams and Richard Henry Lee. But unless the most pro- 
found and delicate statesmanship should be forthcoming, 
to take this sentiment under its guidance, there was much 
reason to fear that the release from the common adhesion to 



58 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 



5"0 j; ; 

) «, ft ^ — ^-^ ?>-■-., ""-'o-- Co COS ^^•-t 



:M0 



»Q "^^ S = J! -3 ^- ?■ S C S < ' 



CD " fj'-'^ill P -J s 111 is-giiri^llj I: ="il|lHl "^1 c 

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Great Britain would end in setting up thirteen little repub- 
lics, ripe for endless squabbling, like the republics of ancient 
Greece and mediaeval Italy, and ready to become the prey 
of England and Spain, even as Greece became the prey of 
Macedonia. 

As such a lamentable result was dreaded by Washington, 
so by statesmen in Europe it was generally expected, and by 
our enemies it was eagerly hoped for. Josiah Tucker, Dean 
of Gloucester, was a far-sighted man in many things ; but he 



1783 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



59 









'I i^^J' 



1^ 






s-j-3'; 



i 5 4r E-J-S S £ i'Si; 2 55-£\=-£i 5 ° 3 »;■= 5 i ^ =^ -= X -^ •? -" " :. '5 3 
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|i'5'|>5 ^ o-s |C a I > ^j j g-j^c I =i° ; S^ I "I i - * « ^i i-"^ c^ 

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"lllslirfilfillll^l:!!!!^ 



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2; X 



said, '' As to the future grandeur of America, and its being 
a rising empire under one head, whether republican or mo- 
narchical, it is one of the idlest and most visionary notions 
that ever was conceived even by writers of romance. The 
mutual antipathies and clashing interests of the Americans, 
their difference of governments, habitudes, and manners, 
indicate that they will have no centre of union and no com- 
mon interest. They never can be united into one compact 
empire under any species of government whatever ; a dis- 



6o THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

united people till the end of time, suspicious and distrustful 
of each other, they will be divided and subdivided into little 
commonwealths or principalities, according to natural bound- 
aries, by great bays of the sea, and by vast rivers, lakes, 
and ridges of mountains." Such were the views of a liberal- 
minded philosopher who bore us no ill-will. George III. 
said officially that he hoped the Americans would not suffer 
from the evils which in history had always followed the 
throwing off of monarchical government : which meant, of 
course, that he hoped they ivould suffer from such evils. 
He believed we should get into such a snarl that the several 
states, one after another, would repent and beg on their 
knees to be taken back into the British empire. Frederick 
of Prussia, though friendly to the Americans, argued that 
the mere extent of country from Maine to Georgia would 
suffice either to break up the Union, or to make a monarchy 
necessary. No republic, he said, had ever long existed on 
so great a scale. The Roman republic had been 
histoHc transformed into a despotism mainly by the exces- 
anaiogies ^.^^ enlargement of its area. It w^as only little 
states, like Venice, Switzerland, and Holland, that could 
maintain a republican government. Such arguments were 
common enough a century ago, but they overlooked three 
essential differences between the Roman republic and the 
United States. The Roman republic in Caesar's time com- 
prised peoples dif- 
fering widely in 
blood, in speech, 
and in degree of 
civilization ; it was 
perpetually threat- 
ened on all its frontiers by powerful enemies ; and repre- 
sentative assemblies were unknown to it. The only free 
government of which the Roman knew anything was that of 
the primary assembly or town meeting. On the other hand, 
the people of the United States were all English in speech, 
and mainly English in blood. The differences in degree of 




I7S3 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



61 



civilization between such states as Massachusetts and North 
CaroHna were considerable, but in comparison with such dif- 
ferences as those between Attika and Lusitania they might 
well be called slight. The attacks of savages on the fron- 
tier were cruel and annoying, but never since the time of 
King Philip had they seemed to threaten the existence of the 



John Fitch's First Jlani Fersevtrance 




ajf .(em on the Delawaj'c Pini 



white man. A very small military establishment was quite 
enough to deal with the Indians. And to crown all, the 
American people were thoroughly familiar with the principle 
of representation, having practised it on a grand scale for 
more than five centuries in England and America. The gov- 
ernments of the thirteen states were all similar, and the polit- 
ical ideas of one were perfectly intelligible to all the others. 
It was essentially fallacious, therefore, to liken the case of 
the United States to that of ancient Rome. 

But there was another feature of the case which was quite 
hidden from the men of 1783. Just before the assembling of 
the first Continental Congress James Watt had completed 
his steam-engine ; in the summer of i 'j?)'j, while the Federal 
Convention was sitting at Philadelphia, John Fitch launched 
his first steamboat on the Delaware River ; and Stephenson's 
invention of the locomotive was to follow in less than half 
a century. Even with all other conditions favourable, it is 



62 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

doubtful if the American Union could have been preserved 
to the present time without the railroad. But for the mili- 
tary aid of railroads our government would hardly have suc- 
ceeded in putting down the rebellion of the southern states. 
In the debates on the Oregon Bill in the United 
of railroad Statcs Senate in 1843, the idea that we could ever 
Iraptfupon have an interest in so remote a country as Oregon 
orthe*"'^^ was loudly ridiculed by some of the members. It 
American would take tcu mouths — Said George McDuffie, 

Union r r> i ^ 

the very able senator from South Carolma — for 
representatives to get from that territory to the District 
of Columbia and back again. Yet since the building of 
railroads to the Pacific coast, we can go from Boston to 
the capital of Oregon in much less time than it took John 
Hancock to make the journey from Boston to Philadelphia. 
Railroads and telegraphs have made our vast country, both 
for political and for social purposes, more snug and compact 
than little Switzerland was in the Middle Ages or New 
England a century ago. 

At the time of our Revolution the difficulties of travelling 
formed an important social obstacle to the union of the states. 
In our time the persons who pass in a single day between 
New York and Boston by six or seven distinct lines of rail- 
road and steamboat are numbered by thousands. In 1783 
two stage-coaches were enough for all the travellers, and 
nearly all the freight besides, that went between these two 
cities, except such large freight as went by sea around Cape 
Cod. The journey began at three o'clock in the morning. 
Horses were changed every twenty miles, and if the roads 
were in good condition some forty miles would be made by 
Difficulty ten o'clock in the evening. In bad weather, when 
a hundVd ^ ^^^ passcngcrs had to get down and lift the clumsy 
years ago wheels out of deep ruts, the progress was much 
slower. The loss of life from accidents, in proportion to the 
number of travellers, was much greater than it has ever 
been on the railway. Broad rivers like the Connecticut and 
Housatonic had no bridges. To drive across them in winter, 



1783 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



63 



when they were sohdly frozen over, was easy ; and in pleasant 
summer weather to cross in a row-boat was not a dangerous 
undertaking. But squalls at some seasons and floating ice at 
others were things to be feared. " More than one instance is 
recorded where boats were crushed and passengers drowned, 
or saved only by scrambling upon ice-floes. After a week 
or ten days of discomfort and danger the jolted and jaded 
traveller reached New York. Such was a journey in the 
most highly civilized part of the United States. The case 
was still worse in the South, and it was not so very much 
better in England and France. In one respect the traveller 
in the United States fared better than the traveller in 
Europe : there was less danger from highwaymen. 




OLD STAGE-COACH 



Such being the difficulty of travelling, people never made 
long journeys save for very important reasons. Except in 
the case of the soldiers, most people lived and died without 
ever having seen any state but their own. And as the mails 
were irregular and uncertain, and the rates of postage very 
high, people heard from one another but seldom. Commer- 
cial dealings between the different states were inconsider- 



64 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

able. The occupation of the people was chiefly agriculture. 
Cities were few and small, and each little district for the 
most part supported itself. Under such circumstances the 
different parts of the country knew little about each other, 
and local prejudices were intense. It was not simply free 
Local jeai- Massachusetts and slave-holding South Carolina, 
ousies and or English Connecticut and Dutch New York, that 

antipathies, '^ 

an inherit- misuudcrstood and ridiculed each the other ; but 
primeval even between such neighbouring states as Con- 
savagery nccticut and Massachusetts, both of them thor- 
oughly English and Puritan, and in all their social conditions 
almost exactly alike, it used often to be said that there was 
no love lost. These unspeakably stupid and contemptible 
local antipathies are inherited by civilized men from that 
far-off time when the clan system prevailed over the face of 
the earth, and the hand of every clan was raised against its 
neighbours. They are pale and evanescent survivals from 
the universal primitive warfare, and the sooner they die out 
from human society the better for every one. They should 
be stigmatized and frowned down upon every fit occasion, 
just as we frown upon swearing as a symbol of anger and 
contention. But the only thing which can finally destroy 
them is the widespread and unrestrained intercourse of 
different groups of people in peaceful social and commercial 
relations. The rapidity with which this process is now going 
on is the most encouraging of all the symptoms of our 
modern civilization. But a century ago the /.rogress made 
in this direction had been relatively small, and it was a very 
critical moment for the American people. 

The thirteen states, as already observed, had worked in 
concert for only nine years, during which their cooperation 
had been feeble and halting. But the several state govern- 
ments had been in operation since the first settlement of 
the country, and were regarded with intense loyalty by the 
people of the states. Under the royal governors the local 
political life of each state had been vigorous and often 
stormy, as befitted communities of the sturdy descendants of 




'frf* 







■•.'« 






, ?'* 



66 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

English freemen. The legislative assembly of each state 
had stoutly defended its liberties against the encroachments 
of the governor. In the eyes of the people it was the only 
power on earth competent to lay taxes upon them, it was as 
supreme in its own sphere as the British Parliament itself, 
and in behalf of this rooted conviction the people had gone 
to war and won their independence from England. During 
the war the people of all the states, except Connecticut and 
Rhode Island, had carefully remodelled their governments, 
and in the performance of this work had withdrawn many 
Conserva- of their ablest statesmen from the Continental 
ter^of thT*^' Congress ; but except for the expulsion of the royal 
Revolution ^^d proprietary governors, the work had in no 
instance been revolutionary in its character. It was not so 
much that the American people gained an increase of free- 
dom by their separation from England, as that they kept 
the freedom they had always enjoyed, that freedom which 
was the inalienable birthright of Englishmen, but which 
George III. had foolishly sought to impair. The American 
Revolution was therefore in no respect destructive. It was 
the most conservative revolution known to history, thor- 
oughly English in conception from beginning to end. It 
had no likeness whatever to the terrible popular convulsion 
which soon after took place in France. The mischievous 
doctrines of Rousseau had found few readers and fewer 
admirers among the Americans. The principles upon which 
their revolution was conducted were those of Sidney and 
Locke. In remodelling the state governments, as in plan- 
ning the union of the states, the precedents followed and the 
principles applied were almost purely English. We must 
now pass in review the principal changes wrought in the 
several states, and we shall then be ready to consider the 
general structure of the Confederation, and to describe 
the remarkable series of events which led to the adoption of 
our Federal Constitution. 

It will be remembered that at the time of the Declaration 
of Independence there were three kinds of government in 



1783 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



67 



the colonies. Connecticut and Rhode Island had always 
been true republics, with governors and legislative assemblies 
elected by the people. Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Mary- 
land presented the appearance of limited hereditary mon- 
archies. Their assemblies were chosen by the people, but 
the lords proprietary appointed their governors, or in some 
instances acted as governors themselves. In Maryland the 
office of lord proprietary was hereditary in the 
Calvert family; in Delaware and Pennsylvania, 
which, though distinct commonwealths with sepa- 
rate legislatures, had the same executive head, it 
was hereditary in the Penn family. The other 
eight colonies were viceroyalties, with governors appointed 
by the king, while in all alike the people elected the legisla- 
tures. Accordingly, in Connecticut and Rhode Island no 



State gov- 
ernments 
remodelled; 
assemblies 
continued 
from colo- 
nial times 




fitch's steamboat of 1790 



change was made necessary by the Revolution, beyond the 
mere omission of the king's name from legal documents ; 
and their charters, which dated from the middle of the seven- 
teenth century, continued to do duty as state constitutions 
till far into the nineteenth. During the Revolutionary 
War all the other states framed new constitutions, but in 
most essential respects they took the old colonial charters 
for their model. The popular legislative body remained 
unchanged even in its name. In North Carolina its supreme 
dignity was vindicated in its title of the House of Commons ; 



68 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

in Virginia it was called the House of Burgesses ; in most 
of the states the House of Representatives. The members 
were chosen each year, except in South Carolina, where 
they served for two years. In the New England states they 
represented the townships, in other states the counties. In 
all the states except Pennsylvania a property qualification 
was required of them. 

In addition to this House of Representatives all the legis- 
latures except those of Pennsylvania and Georgia contained 
Origin of a sccond or upper house known as the Senate, 
the senates ^he Origin of the senate is to be found in the 
governor's council of colonial times, just as the House of 
Lords is descended from the Witenagemot or council of 
great barons summoned by the Old-English kings. The 
Americans had been used to having the acts of their pop- 
ular assemblies reviewed by a council, and so they retained 
this revisory body as an upper house. A higher property 
qualification was required than for membership of the lower 
house, and, except in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and 
South Carolina, the term of service was longer. In Mary- 
land senators sat for five years, in Virginia and New York 
for four years, elsewhere for two years. In some states they 
were chosen by the people, in others by the lower house. 
In Maryland they were chosen by a college of electors, thus 
affording a precedent for the method of electing the chief 
magistrate of the Union under the Federal Constitution. 

Governors were unpopular in those days. There was too 
much flavour of royalty and high prerogative about them. 
Except in the two republics of Rhode Island and Connecti- 
cut, American political history during the eighteenth century 
was chiefly the record of interminable squabbles between 
governors and legislatures, down to the moment when the 
detested agents of royalty were clapped into jail, or took 
Governors rcfugc behind the bulwarks of a British seventy- 
wTth^^is- four. Accordingly, the new constitutions were 
picion vej-y chary of the powers to be exercised by the 

governor. In Pennsylvania and Delaware, in New Hamp- 



783 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



69 




VIEW OF NORTH SIDE OF WALL STREET, NEW YORK, 1 7S5 



shire and Massachusetts, the governor was at first replaced 
by an executive council, and the president of this council was 
first magistrate and titular ruler of the state. His dignity- 
was imposing enough, but his authority was merely that 
of a chairman. The other states had governors chosen by 
the legislatures, except in New York, where the governor 
was elected by the people. No one was eligible to the office 
of governor who did not possess a specified amount of pro- 
perty. In most of the states the governor could not be re- 
elected, he had no veto upon the acts of the legislature, nor 
any power of appointing officers. In 1780, in a new consti- 
tution drawn up by James Bowdoin and the two Adamses, 
Massachusetts led the way in the construction of a more 
efficient executive department. The president was replaced 
by a governor elected annually by the people, and endowed 
with the power of appointment and a suspensory veto. The 
first governor elected under this constitution was John Han- 
cock. In 1783 New Hampshire adopted a similar constitu- 
tion. In 1790 Pennsylvania added an upper house to its 
legislature, and vested the executive power in a governor 
elected by the people for a term of three years, and twice 



70 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

reeligible. He was intrusted with the power of appointment 
to offices, with a suspensory veto, and with the royal pre- 
rogative of reprieving or pardoning criminals. In 1792 simi- 
lar changes were made in Delaware. In 1789 Georgia added 
the upper house to its legislature, and about the same time 
in several states the governor's powers were enlarged. 

Thus the various state governments were repetitions on 
a small scale of what was then supposed to be the triplex 
government of England, with its King, Lords, and Com- 
mons. The governor answered to the king with his dignity 
curtailed by election for a short period, and by narrowly 
limited prerogatives. The senate answered to the House of 
Lords, except in being a representative and not a hereditary 
body. It was supposed to represent more especially that 
part of the community which was possessed of most wealth 
and consideration ; and in several states the senators were 
apportioned with some reference to the amount of taxes 
paid by different parts of the state. The senate of New 
York, in direct imitation of the House of Lords, was made 
a supreme court of errors. On the other hand, the assembly 
answered to the House of Commons, save that its power 
was limited by the senate to a much greater degree than the 
power of the House of Commons is limited by the House of 
Lords. But this peculiarity of the British Constitution was 
not well understood a century ago ; and the misunderstand- 
ing, as we shall hereafter see, exerted a serious influence 
upon the form of our federal government, as well as upon 
the constitutions of the several states. 

In all the thirteen states the common law of England 
remained in force, as it does to this day save where modified 
by statute. British and colonial statutes made prior to the 
Revolution continued also in force unless expressly repealed. 
The system of civil and criminal courts, the remedies in 
common law and equity, the forms of writs, the functions of 
justices of the peace, the courts of probate, all remained 
substantially unchanged. In Pennsylvania, Delaware, and 
New Jersey, the judges held office for a term of seven years ; 



1783 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



71 



in all the other states they held office for life or during good 
behaviour. In all the states save Georgia they The 
were appointed either by the governor or by the Judiciary 
legislature. It was Georgia that in 1812 first set the per- 
nicious example of electing judges for short terms by the 
people,^ — a practice which is responsible for much of the 
degradation that the courts have suffered in many of our 
states, and which will have to be abandoned before a proper 
administration of justice can ever be secured. 




merchants' exchange, new YORK, 1752-99 



In bestowing the suffrage, the new constitutions were as 
conservative as in all other respects. The general state of 
opinion in America at that time, with regard to universal 
suffrage, was far more advanced than the general state of 
opinion in England, but it was less advanced than the opin- 

^ In recent years Georgia has been one of the first states to abandon 
this bad practice. 



72 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap. ll 

ions of such statesmen as Pitt and Shelburne and the Duke 
of Richmond. There was a truly EngHsh irregularity in the 
provisions which were made on this subject. In New Hamp- 
shire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and South Carolina, all resi- 
dent freemen who paid taxes could vote. In North 

The . '■ 

limited Carolina all such persons could vote for members 
" of the lower house, but in order to vote for sena- 
tors a freehold of fifty acres was required. In Virginia none 
could vote save those who possessed such a freehold of fifty 
acres. To vote for governor or for senators in New York, 
one must possess a freehold of ^250, clear of mortgage, and 
to vote for assemblymen one must either have a freehold of 
^50, or pay a yearly rent of ^10. The pettiness of these 
sums was in keeping with the time when two daily coaches 
sufficed for the traffic between our two greatest commercial 
cities. In Rhode Island an unincumbered freehold worth 
^134 was required; but in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania 
the eldest sons of qualified freemen could vote without pay- 
ment of taxes. In all the other states the possession of a 
small amount of property, either real or personal, varying 
from $33 to ^200, was the necessary qualification for voting. 
Thus slowly and irregularly did the states drift toward uni- 
versal suffrage ; but although the impediments in the way 
of voting were more serious than they seem to us in these 
days when the community is more prosperous and money 
less scarce, they were still not very great, and in the opinion 
of conservative people they barely sufficed to exclude from 
the suffrage such shiftless persons as had no visible interest 
in keeping down the taxes. 

At the time of the Revolution the succession to property 
was regulated in New York and the southern states by the 
English rule of primogeniture. The eldest son took all. In 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the four New Eng- 
land states, the eldest son took a double share. It was 
Georgia that led the way in decreeing the equal distribution 
of intestate property, both real and personal ; and between 
1784 and 1796 the example was followed by all the other 



1783 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



73 



states. At the same time entails were either definitely abol 
ished, or the obstacles to cutting them off were 
removed. In New York the manorial privileges 
of the great patroons were swept away. In Ma- 
ryland the old manorial system had long: been manorial 

. ■' ^ privileges 

dymg a natural death through the encroachments 

of the patriarchal system of slavery. The ownership of all 



Abolition 
of primo- 
geniture, 
entails, and 




ungranted lands within the limits of the thirteen states 
passed from the crown not to the Confederacy, but to the 
several state governments. In Pennsylvania and Maryland 
such ungranted lands had belonged to the lords proprietary. 
They were now forfeited to the state. The Penn family 
was indemnified by Pennsylvania to the amount of half a 
million dollars ; but Maryland made no compensation to the 
Calverts, inasmuch as their claim was presented by an ille- 
gitimate descendant of the last Lord Baltimore. 



74 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 



The success of the American Revohition made it possible 
for the different states to take measures for the gradual 
abolition of slavery and the immediate abolition of the for- 
eign slave-trade. On this great question the state of public 
opinion in America was more advanced than in England. 
So great a thinker as Edmund Burke, who devoted much 
thought to the subject, came to the conclusion that slavery- 
was an incurable evil, and that there was not the 
w!^rd^h°e slightest hopc that the trade in slaves could be 
si^ver'°and Stopped. The most that he thought could be done 
the slave- by judicious legislation was to mitigate the horrors 
which the poor negroes endured on board ship, or 
to prevent wives from being sold away from their husbands 
or children from their parents. Such was the outlook to 
one of the greatest political philosophers of modern times 
just eighty-two years before the immortal proclamation of 
President Lincoln ! But how vast was the distance between 
Burke and his contemporary Thurlow, who in 1799 poured 
out the vials of his wrath upon "the altogether misera- 
ble and contemptible" proposal to abolish the slave-trade. 
George III. agreed with his chancellor, and resisted the 
movement for abolition with all the obstinacy of which his 
hard and narrow nature was capable. In 1769 the Virginia 
legislature had enacted that the further importation of 
negroes, to be sold into slavery, should be prohibited. But 
George III. instructed the governor to veto this act, and it 
was vetoed. In Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of 
Independence, this action of the king was made the occasion 
of a fierce denunciation of slavery, but in deference to the 
prejudices of South Carolina and Georgia the clause was 
struck out by Congress. When George III. and his vetoes 
had been eliminated from the case, it became possible for 
the states to legislate freely on the subject. In 1776 negro 
slaves were held in all the thirteen states, but in all except 
South Carolina and Georgia there was a strong sentiment in 
favour of emancipation. In North Carolina, which contained 
a large Quaker population, and in which estates were small 



1783 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



75 



and were often cultivated by free labour, the pro-slavery 
feeling was never so strong as in the southernmost states. 
In Virginia all the foremost statesmen — Washington, Jef- 
ferson, Lee, Randolph, Henry, Madison, and Mason — were 



' l;||\'v;;.^;l!l;|'lN'';|l!!';li''^''^'|lv^||i!| 



ii mil 



I I rn 'I" 



H'"|\ ^^^"^^a 







opposed to the continuance of slavery ; and their opinions 
were shared by many of the largest planters. For tobacco 
culture slavery did not seem so indispensable as for the 
raising of rice and indigo ; and in Virginia the negroes, half- 



76 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, n 

civilized by kindly treatment, were not regarded with dread 
by their masters, like the ill-treated and ferocious blacks of 
South Carolina and Georgia. After 1808 the policy and the 
sentiments of Virginia underwent a marked change. The 
invention of the cotton-gin, taken in connection with the 
sudden and prodigious development of manufactures in Eng- 
land, greatly stimulated the growth of cotton in the ever- 
enlarging area of the Gulf states, and created an immense 
demand for slave-labour, just at the time when the importa- 
tion of negroes from Africa came to an end. The breeding 
of slaves, to be sold to the planters of the Gulf states, then 
became such a profitable occupation in Virginia as entirely 
to change the popular feeling about slavery. But until 1 808 
Virginia sympathized with the anti-slavery sentiment which 
was growing up in the northern states ; and the same was 
true of Maryland. Emancipation was, however, much more 
easy to accomplish in the north, because the number of 
slaves was small, and economic circumstances distinctly 
favoured free labour. In the work of gradual emancipation 
the little state of Delaware led the way. In its new consti- 
tution of 1776 the further introduction of slaves was pro- 
hibited, all restraints upon emancipation having already been 
removed. In the assembly of Virginia in 1778 a bill pro- 
hibiting the further introduction of slaves was moved and 
carried by Thomas Jefferson, and the same measure was 
passed in Maryland in 1783, while both these states removed 
all restraints upon emancipation. North Carolina was not 
ready to go quite so far, but in 1 786 she sought to discour- 
age the slave-trade by putting a duty of ^5 per head on all 
negroes thereafter imported. New Jersey followed the ex- 
ample of Maryland and Virginia. Pennsylvania went farther. 
In 1780 its assembly enacted that no more slaves should be 
brought in, and that all children of slaves born after that 
date should be free. The same provisions were made by 
New Hampshire in its new constitution of 1783, and by the 
assembhes of Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1784. New 
York went farther still, and in 1785 enacted that all children 



1783 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS ']^ 

of slaves thereafter born should not only be free, but should 
be admitted to vote on the same conditions as other free- 
men. In 1788 Virginia, which contained many free negroes, 
enacted that any person convicted of kidnapping or selling 
into slavery any free person should suffer death on the gal- 
lows. Summing up all these facts, we see that within two 
years after the independence of the United States had been 
acknowledged by England, while the two southernmost 
states had done nothing to check the growth of slavery. 
North Carolina had discouraged the importation of slaves ; 
Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey had stopped 
such importation and removed all restraint upon emancipa- 
tion ; and all the remaining states, except Massachusetts, 
had made gradual emancipation compulsory. Massachusetts 
had gone still farther. Before the Revolution the anti-sla- 
very feeling had been very strong there, and cases brought 
into court for the purpose of testing the legality of slavery 
had been decided in favour of those who were opposed to 
the continuance of that barbarous institution. In 1777 an 
American cruiser brought into the port of Salem a captured 
British ship with slaves on board, and these slaves were 
advertised for sale, but on complaint being made before the 
legislature they were set free. The new constitution of 1780 
contained a declaration of rights which asserted that all men 
are born free and have an equal and inalienable right to 
defend their lives and liberties, to acquire property, and to 
seek and obtain safety and happiness. The supreme court 
presently decided that this clause worked the abolition of 
slavery, and accordingly Massachusetts was the first of 
American states, within the limits of the Union, to become 
in the full sense of the words a free commonwealth. Of 
the negro inhabitants, not more than six thousand in num- 
ber, a large proportion had already for a long time enjoyed 
freedom ; and all were now admitted to the suffrage on the 
same terms as other citizens. 

By the revolutionary legislation of the states some pro- 
gress was also effected in the direction of a more complete 



78 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

religious freedom. Pennsylvania and Delaware were the 
Progress Only statcs in which all Christian sects stood so- 
freldomin cially and politically on an equal footing. In 
religion Rhodc Island all Protestants enjoyed equal privi- 
leges, but Catholics were debarred from voting. ^ In Massa- 
chusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, the old Puritan 
Congregationalism was the established religion. The Con- 
gregational church was supported by taxes, and the minister, 
once chosen, kept his place for life or during good behaviour. 
He could not be got rid of unless formally investigated 
and dismissed by an ecclesiastical council. Laws against 
blasphemy, which were virtually laws against heresy, were 
in force in these three states. In Massachusetts, Catholic 
priests were liable to imprisonment for life. Any one who 
should dare to speculate too freely about the nature of 
Christ, or the philosophy of the plan of salvation, or to ex- 
press a doubt as to the plenary inspiration of every word 
between the two covers of the Bible, was subject to fine 
and imprisonment. The tithing-man still arrested Sabbath- 
breakers and shut them up in the town-cage in the market- 
place ; he stopped all unnecessary riding or driving on 

^ This exclusion of Catliolics was contrary to tlie views of Roger 
Williams and to the spirit of the Rhode Island charter, if not to its 
letter also. It was effected, nobody knows just how, by the interpola- 
tion of a disabling clause in the " Act declaring the rights and privi- 
leges of his Majesty's subjects within this colony," which ends with the 
words, " and that all men [professing Christianity and] of competent 
estates, and of civil conversation, who acknowledge and are obedient 
to the civil magistrate, though of different judgment in religious affairs 
[Roman Catholics excepted], shall be admitted freemen, and shall have 
liberty to choose and be chosen ofificers in the colony, both military and 
civil." The first interpolation excludes Jews, as the second excludes 
Catholics, whereas Williams in his noble scheme of Christian fellow- 
ship included both Jews and Catholics. These interpolations were 
certainly made at some time between 1684 and 1705; probably about 
1699. They are undoubtedly a symptom of the anti-Catholic wave of 
feeling which followed the accession of William and Mary, when Cath- 
olic Jacobites were likely to be disloyal. They were repealed in 1783. 
See Greene's History of Rhode Islatid, ii. 490-494. 



1783 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 79 

Sunday, and haled people off to the meeting-house whether 
they would or not. Such restraints upon liberty were still 
endured by people who had dared and suffered so much for 
liberty's sake. The men of Boston strove hard to secure 
the repeal of these barbarous laws and the disestablishment 
of the Congregational church ; but they were outvoted by 
the delegates from the rural towns. The most that could 
be accomplished was the provision that dissenters might 
escape the church rate by supporting a church of their own. 
The nineteenth century was to arrive before church and 
state were finally separated in Massachusetts. The new 
constitution of New Hampshire was similarly illiberal, and 
in Connecticut no change was made. Rhode Island nobly 
distinguished herself by contrast when in 1783 she extended 
the franchise to Catholics. 

In the six states just mentioned the British government 
had been hindered by charter, and by the overwhelming 
opposition of the people, from seriously trying to establish 
the Episcopal church. The sure fate of any such mad 
experiment had been well illustrated in the time of Andros. 
In the other seven states there were no such insuperable 
obstacles. The Church of England was maintained with 
languid acquiescence in New York. By the Quakers and 
Presbyterians of New Jersey and North Carolina, as well as 
in half-Catholic, half-Puritan Maryland, its supremacy was 
unwillingly endured ; in the turbulent frontier commonwealth 
of Georgia it was accepted with easy contempt. Only in 
South Carolina and Virginia had the Church of England 
ever possessed any real hold upon the people. The Epis- 
copal clergy of South Carolina, men of learning and high 
character, elected by their own congregations instead of 
being appointed to their livings by a patron, were thoroughly 
independent, and in the late war their powerful influence 
had been mainly exerted in behalf of the patriot cause. 
Hence, while they retained their influence after the close of 
the war, there was no difficulty in disestablishing the church. 
It felt itself able to stand without government support. As 



8o THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

soon as the political separation from England was effected, 
the Episcopal church was accordingly separated from the 
state, not only in South Carolina, but in all the states in 
which it had hitherto been upheld by the authority of the 
British government ; and in the constitutions of New Jersey, 
Georgia, and the two Carolinas, no less than in those of 
Delaware and Pennsylvania, it was explicitly provided that 
no man should be obliged to pay any church rate or attend 
any religious service save according to his own free and 
unhampered will. 

The case of Virginia was peculiar. At first the Church 
of England had taken deep root there because of the consid- 
erable immigration of members of the Cavalier party after 
the downfall of Charles I. Most of the great statesmen of 
Virginia in the Revolution — such as Washington, Madison, 
, Mason, Jefferson, Pendleton, Henry, the Lees, and 

Church and •' •' 

state in vir- the Randolphs — were descendants of Cavaliers 
^'"'^ and members of the Church of England. But for 

a long time the Episcopal clergy had been falling into 
discredit. Many of them were appointed by the British 
government and ordained by the Bishop of London, and 
they were affected by the irreligious listlessness and low 
moral tone of the English church in the eighteenth century. 
The Virginia legislature thought it necessary to pass special 
laws prohibiting these clergymen from drunkenness and 
riotous living. It was said that they spent more time in 
hunting foxes and betting on race-horses than in conduct- 
ing religious services or visiting the sick ; and according to 
Bishop Meade, many dissolute parsons, discarded from the 
church in England as unworthy, were yet thought fit to be 
presented with livings in Virginia. To this general charac- 
ter of the clergy there were many exceptions. There were 
many excellent clergymen, especially among the native Vir- 
ginians, whose appointment depended to some extent upon 
the repute in which they were held by their neighbours. 
But on the whole the system was such as to illustrate all the 
worst vices of a church supported by the temporal power. 



1783 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 81 

The Revolution achieved the discomfiture of a clergy already 
thus deservedly discredited. The parsons mostly embraced 
the cause of the crown, but failed to carry their congrega- 
tions with them, and thus they found themselves arrayed in 
hopeless antagonism to popular sentiment in a state which 
contained perhaps fewer Tories in proportion to its popula- 
tion than any other of the thirteen. 

At the same time the Episcopal church itself had gradu- 
ally come to be a minority in the commonwealth. For more 
than half a century Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, German 
Lutherans, English Quakers, and Baptists, had been work- 
ing their way southward from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 
and had settled in the fertile country west of the Blue Ridge. 
Daniel Morgan, who had won the most brilliant battle of 
the Revolution, was one of these men, and sturdiness was 
a chief characteristic of most of them. So long as these 
frontier settlers served as a much-needed bulwark against 
the Indians, the church saw fit to ignore them and let them 
build meeting-houses and carry on religious services as they 
pleased. But when the peril of Indian attack had been 
thrust westward into the Ohio valley, and these dissenting 
communities had waxed strong and prosperous, the ecclesi- 
astical party in the state undertook to lay taxes on them for 
the support of the Church of England, and to compel them 
to receive Episcopal clergymen to preach for them, to bless 
them in marriage, and to bury their dead. The immediate 
consequence was a revolt which not only overthrew the 
established church in Virginia, but nearly effected its ruin. 
The troubles began in 1768, when the Baptists had made 
their way into the centre of the state, and three of their 
preachers were arrested by the sheriff of Spottsylvania. As 
the indictment was read against these men for "preaching 
the gospel contrary to law," a deep and solemn voice inter- 
rupted the proceedings. Patrick Henry had come on horse- 
back many a mile over roughest roads to listen to the trial, 
and this phrase, which savoured of the religious despotisms 
of old, was quite too much for him. *' May it please your 



82 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

worships," he exclaimed, "what did I hear read? Did I 
hear an expression that these men, whom your worships are 
about to try for misdemeanour, are charged with preaching 
the gospel of the Son of God ! " The shamefast silence 
which ensued was of ill omen for the success of an under- 
taking so unwelcome to the growing liberalism of the time. 
The zeal of the persecuted Baptists was presently reinforced 
by the learning and the dialectic skill of the Presbyterian 
ministers. Unlike the Puritans of New England, these 
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians were in favour of the total sepa- 
ration of church from state. It was one of their cardinal 
principles that the civil magistrate had no right to interfere 
in any way with matters of religion. By taking this broad 
ground they secured the powerful aid of Thomas Jefferson, 
and afterwards of Madison and Mason. The controversy 
went on through all the years of the Revolutionary War, 
while all Virginia, from the sea to the mountains, rang with 
fulminations and arguments. In 1776 Jefferson and Mason 
succeeded in carrying a bill which released all dissenters 
from parish rates and legalized all forms of worship. At 
last in 1785, while Jefferson was in France, Madison won 
for him the crowning victory in the passage of his Religious 
Jefferson's P'rccdom Act, by which the Church of England 
FreSom "^^^ disestablished and all parish rates abolished. 
Act, 17S5 and still more, all religious tests were done away 
with. In this last respect Virginia came to the front among 
all the American states, as Massachusetts had come to the 
front in the abolition of negro slavery. Nearly all the states 
still imposed religious tests upon civil office-holders, from 
simply declaring a general belief in the infallibleness of the 
Bible to accepting the doctrine of the Trinity. The Virginia 
statute, which declared that " opinion in matters of religion 
shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect civil capacities," 
was translated into French and Italian, and was widely read 
and commented on in Europe. 

It is the historian's unpleasant duty to add that the vic- 
tory thus happily won was ungenerously followed up. The- 



1/85 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



83 



ological and political odium combined to overwhelm the 
Episcopal church in Virginia. The persecuted became per- 
secutors. It was contended that the property of the church, 
having been largely created by unjustifiable taxation, ought 
to be forfeited. In 1802 its parsonages and glebe lands 




POHICK PARISH CHURCH 



were sold, its parishes wiped out, and its clergy left without 
a calling. "A reckless sensualist," said Dr. Hawks, "ad- 
ministered the morning dram to his guests from the silver 
cup " used in the communion service. But in all this there 
is a manifest historic lesson. That it should have been pos- 
sible thus to deal with the Episcopal church in Virginia 
shows forcibly the moribund condition into which it had 
been brought through dependence upon the extraneous aid 
of a political sovereignty from which the people of Virginia 
were severing their allegiance. The lesson is most vividly 



84 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

enhanced by the contrast with the church of South CaroHna 
which, rooted in its own soil, was quite able to stand alone 
when government aid was withdrawn. In Virginia the 
church in which George Washington was reared had so 
nearly vanished by the year 1830 that Chief Justice Mar- 
shall said it was folly to dream of reviving so dead a thing. 
Nevertheless, under the noble ministration of its great 
bishop, William Meade, the Episcopal church in Virginia, 
no longer relying upon state aid, but trusting in the divine 
persuasive power of spiritual truth, was even then entering 
upon a new life and beginning to exercise a most wholesome 
influence. 

The separation of the English church in America from 
the English crown was the occasion of a curious difficulty 
with regard to the ordination of bishops. Until after the 
Revolution there were no bishops of that church in America, 
and between 1783 and 1785 it was not clear how candidates 
for holy orders could receive the necessary conse- 

Mason _ -' ... 

Weems cratiou. In 1784 a young divinity student from 
uei Sea- Virginia, named Mason Weems, who had been 
"'^^ studying for some time in England, applied to 

the Bishop of London for admission to holy orders, but 
was rudely refused. Weems then had recourse to Watson, 
Bishop of Llandaff, author of the famous reply to Gibbon. 
Watson treated him kindly and advised him to get a letter 
of recommendation from the governor of Maryland, but after 
this had been obtained he referred him to the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, who said that nothing could be done without 
the consent of Parliament. As the law stood, no one could 
be admitted into the ranks of the English clergy without 
taking the oath of allegiance and acknowledging the king of 
England as the head of the church. Weems then wrote 
to John Adams at the Hague, and to Franklin at Paris, to 
see if there were any Protestant bishops on the Continent 
from whom he could obtain consecration. A rather amusing 
diplomatic correspondence ensued, and finally the king of 
Denmark, after taking theological advice, kindly offered the 



1784 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 85 

services of a Danish bishop, who was to perform the cere- 
mony in Latin. Weems does not seem to have availed him- 
self of this permission, probably because the question soon 
reached a more satisfactory solution.^ About the same 




time the Episcopal church in Connecticut sent one of its 
ministers, Samuel Seabury of New London, to England, to 

^ It was this same Mason Weems that was afterward known in Vir- 
ginia as Parson Weems, of Pohick parish, near Mount Vernon. See 
Magazine of American History, iii. 465-472 ; v. 85-90. At first an 
eccentric preacher. Parson Weems became an itinerant violin-player and 
book-peddler, and author of that edifying work. The Life of George 
Washington^ with Curious Anecdotes equally Honotirable to Himself 
and Exemplary to his Young Countrymen. On the title-page the 
author describes himself as "formerly rector of Mount Vernon Parish," 
— which Bishop Meade calls preposterous. The book is a farrago of 
absurdities, reminding one, ahke in its text and its illustrations, of an 
overgrown English chap-book of the olden time. It has had an enor- 
mous sale, and has very likely contributed more than any other single 
book toward forming the popular notion of Washington. It seems to 
have been this fiddling parson that first gave currency to the everlasting 
story of the cherry-tree and the little hatchet. 



86 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

be ordained as bishop. The oaths of allegiance and suprem- 
acy stood as much in the way of the learned and famous 
minister as in that of the young and obscure student. Sea- 
November bury accordingly appealed to the non-juring Jaco- 
14, 17S4 ]3ite bishops of the Episcopal church of Scotland, 
and at length was duly ordained at Aberdeen as bishop of 
the diocese of Connecticut. While Seabury was in Eng- 
land, the churches in the various states chose delegates 
to a general convention, which framed a constitution for 
the " Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of 
America." Advowsons were abolished, some parts of the 
liturgy were dropped, and the tenure of ministers, even of 
bishops, was to be during good behaviour. At the same 
time a friendly letter was sent to the bishops of England, 
urging them to secure, if possible, an act of Parliament 
whereby American clergymen might be ordained without 
taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. Such an act 
was obtained without much difficulty, and three American 
bishops were accordingly consecrated in due form. The 
peculiar ordination of Seabury was also recognized as valid 
by the general convention, and thus the Episcopal church in 
America was fairly started on its independent career. 

This foundation of a separate episcopacy west of the At- 
lantic was accompanied by the further separation of the 
Methodists as a distinct religious society. Although John 
Wesley regarded the notion of an apostolical succession as 
superstitious, he had made no attempt to separate his fol- 
lowers from the national church. He translated the titles 
of " bishop " and " priest " from Greek into Latin and Eng- 
lish, calling them " superintendent " and " elder," but he did 
not deny the king's headship. Meanwhile during the long 
period of his preaching there had begun to grow up a Metho- 
dist church in America. George Whitefield had come over 
and preached in Georgia in 1737, and in Massachusetts in 
1744, where he encountered much opposition on the part 
of the Puritan clergy. But the first Methodist church in 
America was founded in the city of New York in 1766. In 



1784 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



^7 



1772 Wesley sent over Francis Asbury, a man of shrewd 
sense and deep religious feeling, to act as his Francis 
assistant and representative in this country. At uie^Metho^ 
that time there were not more than a thousand ^^^^ 
Methodists, with sLx preachers, and all these were in the 
middle and southern colonies ; but within five years, largely 
owing to the zeal and eloquence of Asbury, these numbers 




yi''^~-&-<tr>. 



<:-<,-*«' 




had increased sevenfold. At the end of the war, seeing the 
American Methodists cut loose from the English establish- 
ment, Wesley in his own house at Bristol, with the aid of 
two presbyters, proceeded to ordain ministers enough to 
make a presbytery, and thereupon set apart Thomas Coke 
to be " superintendent " or bishop for America. On the 
same day of November, 1784, on which Seabury was conse- 
crated by the non-jurors at Aberdeen, Coke began preach- 
ing and baptizing in Maryland, in rude chapels built of logs 



88 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

or under the shade of forest trees. On Christmas Eve a 
conference assembled at Baltmiore, at which Asbury was 
chosen bishop by some sixty ministers present, and ordained 
by Coke, and the constitution of the Methodist church in 
America was organized. Among the poor white people of 
the southern states, and among the negroes, the new church 
rapidly obtained great sway ; and at a somewhat later date it 
began to assume considerable proportions in the north. 

Four years after this the Presbyterians, who were most 
numerous in the middle states, organized their government 
in a general assembly, which was also attended by Congre- 
gationalist delegates from New England in the capacity of 
simple advisers. The theological difference between these 
two sects was so slight that an alliance grew up between 
them, and outside of New England their names have come 
to be inaccurately used as if synonymous. ^ Such a dif- 
ference seemed to vanish when confronted with the newer 
Presby- differences that began to spring up soon after the 
Roman closc of the Rcvolution. The revolt against the 
Catholics doctriue of eternal punishment was already begin- 
ning in New England, and among the learned and thought- 
ful clergy of Massachusetts the seeds of Unitarianism were 
germinating. The gloomy intolerance of an older time was 
beginning to yield to more enlightened views. In 1789 the 
first Roman Catholic church in New England was dedicated 
in Boston. So great had been the prejudice against this 
sect that in 1 784 there were only 600 Catholics in all New 
England. In the four southernmost states, on the other 
hand, there were 2,500 ; in New York and New Jersey there 
were 1,700; in Delaware and Pennsylvania there were 7,700; 
in Maryland there were 20,000 ; while among the French 
settlements along the eastern bank of the Mississippi there 
were supposed to be nearly 12,000. In 1786 John Carroll, 
a cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, was selected by 
the Pope as his apostolic vicar, and was afterward succes- 

^ Even in Connecticut I have heard Congregationalists called Pres- 
byterians, but never in Massachusetts. 



1784 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 



sively made bishop of Baltimore and archbishop of the 
United States. By 1789 all obstacles to the Catholic wor- 
ship had been done away with in all the states. 

In this brief survey of the principal changes wrought in 
the several states by the separation from England, one 



'M?W '"■'^^i^V ^^'^'^'M*, 










cannot fail to be struck with their conservative character. 
Things proceeded just as they had done from time imme- 
morial with the English race. Forms of government were 
modified just far enough to adapt them to the new situation 



90 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, ii 

and no farther. The abolition of entails, of primogeniture, 
and of such few manorial privileges as existed, were useful 
reforms of far less sweeping character than similar changes 
would have been in England ; and they were accordingly- 
effected with ease. Even the abolition of slavery in the 
northern states, where negroes were few in number and 
chiefly employed in domestic service, wrought nothing in 
the remotest degree resembling a social revolution. But 
nowhere was this constitutionally cautious and precedent- 
loving mode of proceeding more thoroughly exemplified than 
in the measures just related, whereby the Episcopal and 
Methodist churches were separated from the English estab- 
lishment and placed upon an independent footing in the new 
Except world. From another point of view it may be ob- 
instance scrvcd that all these changes, except in the in- 
of slavery, stancc of slavcry, tended to assimilate the states to 

3II these 

changes onc another in their political and social condition, 
fllo^urabie So far as they went, these changes were favour- 
to union ^^^g |.Q ^^nion, and this was perhaps especially true 
in the case of the ecclesiastical bodies, which brought citi- 
zens of different states into cooperation in pursuit of specific 
ends in common. 

At the same time this survey most forcibly reminds us 
how completely the legislation which immediately affected 
the daily domestic life of the citizen was the legislation of 
the single state in which he lived. In the various reforms 
just passed in review the United States government took 
no part, and could not from the nature of the case. Even 
to-day our national government has no power over such 
matters, and it is to be hoped it never will have. But at the 
present day our national government performs many impor- 
tant functions of common concern, which a century ago were 
scarcely performed at all. The organization of the single 
state was old in principle and well understood by everybody. 
It therefore worked easily, and such changes as those above 
described were brought about with little friction. On the 
other hand, the principles upon which the various relations 



17S4 THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 91 

of the States to each other were to be adjusted were not 
well understood. There was wide disagreement upon the 
subject, and the attempt to compromise between opposing 
views was not at first successful. Hence, in the manage- 
ment of affairs which concerned the United States as a 
nation, we shall not find the central machinery working 
smoothly or quietly. We are about to traverse a period of 
uncertainty and confusion, in which it required all the politi- 
cal sagacity and all the good temper of the people to save 
the half-built ship of state from going to pieces on the rocks 
of civil contention. 



CHAPTER III 

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

That some kind of union existed between the states was 
doubted by no one. Ever since the assembhng of the first 
Continental Congress in 1774 the thirteen commonwealths 
had acted in concert, and sometimes most generously, as 
when Maryland and South Carolina had joined in the Decla- 
ration of Independence without any crying grievances of 
their own, from a feeling that the cause of one should be the 
cause of all. It has sometimes been said that the Union 
was in its origin a league of sovereign states, each of which 
surrendered a specific portion of its sovereignty to the federal 
government for the sake of the common welfare. Grave 
political arguments had been based upon this alleged fact, 
but such an account of the matter is not historically true. 
There never was a time when Massachusetts or Virginia 
was an absolutely sovereign state like Holland or France. 
Sovereign over their own internal affairs they are to-day as 
they were at the time of the Revolution, but there was 
never a time when they presented themselves before other 
nations as sovereign, or were recognized as such. Under 
the government of England before the Revolution the thir- 
teen commonwealths were independent of one another, and 
were held together, juxtaposed rather than united, 
erafsTaTes Only through their allegiance to the British crown. 
en[o^yer^' Had that allegiance been maintained there is no 
complete telling how long they might have gone on thus 

sovereignty ° o j <=> o 

disunited ; and this, it seems, should be one ot 
our chief reasons for rejoicing that the political connection 
with England was dissolved when it was. A permanent re- 
dress of grievances, and even virtual independence such as 



:m 




94 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

Canada now enjoys, we might perhaps have gained had we 
listened to Lord North's proposals after the surrender of 
Burgoyne ; but the formation of the Federal Union would 
certainly have been long postponed, and when we realize the 
grandeur of the work which we are now doing in the world 
through the simple fact of such a union, we must believe 
that such an issue would have been unfortunate. However 
this may be, it is clear that until the connection with Eng- 
land was severed the thirteen commonwealths were not 
united, nor were they sovereign. It is also clear that in the 
very act of severing their connection with England these 
commonwealths entered into some sort of union which was 
incompatible with their absolute sovereignty taken severally. 
It was not the people of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
and so on through the list, that declared their independence 
of Great Britain, but it was the representatives of the United 
States in Congress assembled, and speaking as a single body 
in the name of the whole. It was not the segments of the 
snake, but the creature in its integrity, that captured two 
British armies. 

Three weeks before the Declaration of Independence was 
adopted, Congress appointed a committee to draw up the 
" articles of confederation and perpetual union," by which 
the sovereignty of the several states was expressly limited 
and curtailed in many important particulars. This com- 
mittee had finished its work by the 12th of July, but the 
articles were not adopted by Congress until the autumn of 
1777, and they were not finally put into operation until the 
spring of 1781. During this inchoate period of union the 
action of the United States was that of a confederation in 
which some portion of the several sovereignties was under- 
stood to be surrendered to the whole. It was the business 
of the articles to define the precise nature and extent of this 
surrendered sovereignty which no state by itself ever exer- 
cised. In the mean time this sovereignty, undefined in 
nature and extent, was exercised, as well as circumstances 
permitted, by the Continental Congress. 



1774-89 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 



95 



A most remarkable body was this Continental Congress, 
For the vicissitudes through which it passed, there 
is perhaps no other revolutionary body, save the 
Long Parliament, which can be compared with it. 
For its origin we must look back to the committees 
of correspondence devised by Jonathan Mayhew, 
Samuel Adams, and Dabney Carr. First assembled in 1774 



The Conti- 
nental 
Congress ; 
its extraor- 
dinary 
character 




g^^^^i^M^^ 



to meet an emergency which was generally believed to be 
only temporary, it continued to sit for nearly seven years 
before its powers were ever clearly defined ; and during 
those seven years it exercised some of the highest functions 



96 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

of sovereignty which are possible to any governing body. 
It declared the independence of the United States ; it con- 
tracted an offensive and defensive alliance with France ; it 
raised and organized a Continental army ; it borrowed large 
sums of money, and pledged what the lenders understood 
to be the national credit for their repayment ; it issued an 
inconvertible paper currency, granted letters of marque, and 
built a navy. All this it did in the exercise of what in later 
times would have been called " implied war powers," and its 
authority rested upon the general acquiescence in the pur- 
poses for which it acted and in the measures which it 
adopted. Under such circumstances its functions were very 
inefficiently performed. But the articles of confederation, 
which in 1781 defined its powers, served at the same time to 
limit them ; so that for the remaining eight years of its exist- 
ence the Continental Congress grew weaker and weaker, 
until it was swept away to make room for a more efficient 
government. 

John Dickinson is supposed to have been the principal 
author of the articles of confederation; but as the 

1 he arti- 
cles of con- work of the committee was done in secret and has 

never been reported, the point cannot be deter- 
mined. In November, 1777, Congress sent the articles to 
the several state legislatures, with a circular letter recom- 
mending them as containing the only plan of union at all 
likely to be adopted. In the course of the next fifteen 
months the articles were ratified by all the states except 
Maryland, which refused to sign until the states laying 
claim to the northwestern lands, and especially Virginia, 
should surrender their claims to the confederation. We 
shall by and by see, when we come to explain this point in 
detail, that from this action of Maryland there flowed benefi- 
cent consequences that were little dreamed of. It was first 
in the great chain of events which led directly to the forma- 
tion of the Federal Union. Having carried her point, Mary- 
land ratified the articles on the first day of March, 1781 ; 
and thus in the last and most brilliant period of the war, 



1774-89 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 97 

while Greene was leading Cornwallis on his fatal chase across 
North Carolina, the confederation proposed at the time of 
the Declaration of Independence was finally consummated. 
According to the language of the articles, the states 




entered into a firm league of friendship with each other ; 
and in order to secure and perpetuate such friendship, the 
freemen of each state were entitled to all the privileges and 
immunities of freemen in all the other states. Mutual extra- 
dition of criminals was established, and in each state full 
faith and credit was to be given to the records, acts, and 
judicial proceedings of every other state. This universal 
intercitizenship was what gave reality to the nascent and 
feeble Union. In all the common business relations of life, 



98 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, m 

the man of New Hampshire could deal with the man of 
Georgia on an equal footing before the law. But this was 
almost the only effectively cohesive provision in the whole 
instrument. Throughout the remainder of the articles its 
language was largely devoted to reconciling the theory that 
the states were severally sovereign with the visible fact that 
they were already merged to some extent in a larger politi- 
cal body. The sovereignty of this larger body was vested in 
the Congress of delegates appointed yearly by the states. 
No state was to be represented by less than two or more 
than seven members ; no one could be a delegate for more 
than three years out of every six ; and no delegate could hold 
any salaried office under the United States. As in colonial 
times the states had, to preserve their self-government, in- 
sisted upon paying their governors and judges, instead of 
allowing them to be paid out of the royal treasury, so now 
the delegates in Congress were paid by their own states. 
In determining questions in Congress, each state had one 
vote, without regard to population ; but a bare majority was 
not enough to carry any important measure. Not only for 
such extraordinary matters as wars and treaties, but even for 
the regular and ordinary business of raising money to carry 
on the government, not a single step could be taken without 
the consent of at least nine of the thirteen states ; and this 
provision well-nigh sufficed of itself to block the wheels of 
federal legislation. The Congress assembled each year on 
the first Monday of November, and could not adjourn for a 
longer period than six months. During its recess the con- 
tinuity of government was preserved by an executive com- 
mittee, consisting of one delegate from each state, and 
known as the " committee of the states." Saving such mat- 
ters of warfare or treaty as the public interest might require 
to be kept secret, all the proceedings of Congress were 
entered in a journal, to be published monthly; and the yeas 
and nays must be entered should any delegate request it. 
The executive departments of war, finance, and so forth were 
intrusted at first to committees, until experience soon showed 



1774-^ 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 



99 



the necessity of single heads. There was a president of Con- 
gress, who, as representing the dignity of the United States, 
was, in a certain sense, the foremost person in the country, 
but he had no more power than any other delegate. Of the 
fourteen presidents between 1774 and 1789, perhaps only 
Randolph, Hancock, and Laurens are popularly remembered 




in that capacity ; Jay, St. Clair, Mifflin, and Lee are remem- 
bered for other things ; Hanson, Griffin, Gorham, and Bou- 
dinot are scarcely remembered at all, save by the student of 
American history. 

Between the Congress thus constituted and the several 
state governments the attributes of sovereignty were shared 
in such a way as to produce a minimum of result with a 
maximum of effort. The states were prohibited from keep- 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 



CHAP. Ill 



ing up any naval or military force, except militia, or from 
entering into any treaty or alliance, either with a foreign 
power or between themselves, without the consent of Con- 
gress. No state could engage in war except by way of 
defence against a sudden Indian attack. Congress had the 
sole right of determining on peace and war, of sending and 
receiving ambassadors, of making treaties, of adjudicating 
all disputes between the states, of managing Indian affairs, 
and of regulating the value of coin and fixing the standard of 







W 




weights and measures. Congress took control of the post- 
office on condition that no more revenue should be raised 
from postage than should suffice to discharge the expenses 
of the service. Congress controlled the army, but was pro- 
vided with no means of raising soldiers save through requi- 
sitions upon the states, and it could only appoint officers 



1774-89 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP loi 

above the rank of colonel ; the organization of regiments 
was left entirely in the hands of the states. The traditional 
and wholesome dread of a standing army was great, but there 
was no such deep-seated jealousy of a navy, and Congress 
was accordingly allowed not only to appoint all naval officers, 
but also to establish courts of admiralty. 
N Several essential attributes of sovereignty were thus with- 
held from the states ; and by assuming all debts contracted 
by Congress prior to the adoption of the articles, and sol- 
emnly pledging the public faith for their payment, it was 
implicitly declared that the sovereignty here accorded to 
Congress was substantially the same as that which it had 
asserted and exercised ever since the severing of the connec- 
tion with England. The articles simply defined the relations 
of the states to the Confederation as they had already shaped 
themselves. Indeed, the articles, though not finally ratified 
till 1 78 1, had been known to Congress and to the people 
ever since 1776 as their expected constitution, and political 
action had been shaped in general accordance with the 
theory on which they had been drawn up. They show that 
political action was at no time based on the view of the states 
as absolutely sovereign, but they also show that the share of 
sovereignty accorded to Congress was very inadequate even 
to the purposes of an effective confederation. The position 
in which they left Congress was hardly more than that of 
the deliberative head of a league. For the most jhearti- 
fundamental of all the attributes of sovereignty — ^'^^ H^^^ 

'^ J to create a 

the power of taxation — was not given to Congress, federal 
It could neither raise taxes through an excise nor ment en- 
through custom-house duties ; it could only make re°aTso^e'r-^ 
requisitions upon the thirteen members of the con- ®'snty 
federacy in proportion to the assessed value of their real 
estate, and it was not provided with any means of enforcing 
these requisitions. On this point the articles contained 
nothing beyond the vague promise of the states to obey. 
The power of levying taxes was thus retained entirely by 
the states. They not only imposed direct taxes, as they do 



I02 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

to-day, but they laid duties on exports and imports, each 
according to its own narrow view of its local interests. 
The only restriction upon this was that such state-imposed 
duties must not interfere with the stipulations of any for- 
eign treaties such as Congress might make in pursuance of 
treaties already proposed to the courts of France and Spain. 
Besides all this, the states shared with Congress the powers 
of coining money, of emitting bills of credit, and of making 
their promissory notes a legal tender for debts. 

Such w^as the constitution under which the United States 
had begun to drift toward anarchy even before the close of 
the Revolutionary War, but which could only be amended 
by the unanimous consent of all the thirteen states. The 
historian cannot but regard this difficulty of amendment as 
a fortunate circumstance ; for in the troubles which pre- 
sently arose it led the distressed people to seek some other 
method of relief, and thus prepared the way for the Conven- 
tion of 1787, which destroyed the whole vicious scheme, and 
gave us a form of government under which we have just 
completed a century unparalleled for peace and prosperity. 
Besides this extreme difficulty of amendment, the fatal de- 
fects of the Confederation were three in number. The first 
defect was the two thirds vote necessary for any important 
legislation in Congress ; under this rule any five of the states 
— as, for example, the four southernmost states with Mary- 
land, or the four New England states with New Jersey — 
could defeat the most sorely needed measures. The second 
defect was the impossibility of presenting a united front to 
foreign countries in respect to commerce. The third and 
greatest defect was the lack of any means, on the part of 
Congress, of enforcing obedience. Not only was there no 
federal executive or judiciary worthy of the name, but the 
central government operated only upon states, and not upon 
individuals. Congress could call for troops and for money 
in strict conformity with the articles ; but should any state 
prove delinquent in furnishing its quota, there were no con- 
stitutional means of compelling it to obey the call. This 



1774-89 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 



103 



defect was seen and deplored at the outset by such men as 
Washington and Madison, but the only remedy which at first 
occurred to them was one more likely to kill than to cure. 
Only six weeks after the ratification of the articles, Madison 
proposed an amendment " to give to the United States full 




^y^^^S^^^^a-yfCa/yn/ 



authority to employ their force, as well by sea as by land, 
to compel any delinquent state to fulfil its federal engage- 
ments." Washington approved of this measure, hoping, as 
he said, that " a knowledge that this power was lodged in 
Congress might be the means to prevent its ever being exer- 
cised, and the more readily induce obedience. Indeed," 
added Washington, " if Congress were unquestionably pos- 
sessed of the power, nothing should induce the display of it 
but obstinate disobedience and the urgency of the general 
welfare." Madison argued that in the very nature of the 
Confederation such a right of coercion was necessarily im- 



104 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

plied, though not expressed in the articles, and much might 
have been said in behalf of this opinion. The Confederation 
explicitly declared itself to be perpetual, yet how could it 
perpetuate itself for a dozen years without the right to coerce 
its refractory members .'' Practically, however, the remedy 
was one which could never have been applied without break- 
ing the Confederation into fragments. To use the army or 
navy in coercing a state meant nothing less than civil war. 
The local yeomanry would have turned out against the Con- 
tinental army with as high a spirit as that with which they 
swarmed about the British enemy at Lexington or King's 
Mountain. A government which could not collect the taxes 
for its yearly budget without firing upon citizens or blockad- 
ing two or three harbours would have been the absurdest 
political anomaly imaginable. No such idea could have 
entered the mind of a statesman save from the hope that if 
one state should prove refractory, all the others would imme- 
diately frown upon it and uphold Congress in overawing it. 
In such case the knowledge that Congress had the power 
would doubtless have been enough to make its exercise 
unnecessary. But in fact this hope was disappointed, for 
the delinquency of each state simply set an example of dis- 
obedience for all the others to follow ; and the amendment, 
had it been carried, would merely have armed Congress with 
a threat which everybody would have laughed at. So mani- 
festly hopeless was the case to Pelatiah Webster that, as 
early as May, 1781, he published an able pamphlet, urging 
the necessity for a federal convention for overhauling the 
whole scheme of government from beginning to end. 

The military weakness due to this imperfect governmental 
Miiitar Organization may be illustrated by comparing the 
weakness number of regular troops which Congress was able 
govern- to keep in the field during the Revolutionary War 
"^^^^ with the number maintained by the United States 

government during the War of Secession. A rough esti- 
mate, obtained from averages, will suffice to show the broad 
contrast. In 1863, the middle year of the War of Seces- 



I774-S9 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 



105 



sion, the total population of the loyal states was about 
23,491,600, of whom about one fifth, or 4,698,320, were 
adult males of military age. Supposing one adult male out 
of every five to have been under arms at one time, the num- 
ber would have been 939,664. Now the total number of 
troops enlisted in the northern army during the four years 




of the war, reduced to a uniform standard, was 2,320,272, or 
an average of 580,068 under arms in any single year. In 
point of fact, this average was reached before the middle of 
the war, and the numbers went on increasing, until at the end 
there were more than a million men under arms, — at least 
one out of every five adult males in the northern states. On 
the other hand, in 1779, the middle year of the Revolutionary 
War, the white population of the United States was about 
2,175,000, of whom 435,000 were adult males of military 
age. Supposing one out of every five of these to have been 



io6 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, in 

under arms at once, the number would have been 87,000. 
Now m the spring of 1777, when the Contmental Congress 
was at the highest point of authority which it ever reached, 
when France was wilHng to lend it money freely, when its 
paper currency was not yet discredited and it could make 
liberal offers of bounties, a demand was made upon the states 
for 80,000 men, or nearly one fifth of the adult male popu- 
lation, to serve for three years or during the war. Only 
34,820 were obtained. The total number of men in the field 
in that most critical year, including the swarms of militia 
who came to the rescue at Ridgefield and Bennington and 
Oriskany, and the Pennsylvania militia who turned out while 
their state was invaded, was 68,720. In 1781, when the 
credit of Congress was greatly impaired, although military 
activity again rose to a maximum and it was necessary for 
the people to strain every nerve, the total number of men 
in the field, militia and all, was only 29,340, of whom only 
13,292 were Continentals ; and it was left for the genius of 
Washington and Greene, working with desperate energy and 
most pitiful resources, to save the country. A more impres- 
sive contrast to the readiness with which the demands of 
the government were met in the War of Secession can 
hardly be imagined. Had the country put forth its strength 
in 1 78 1 as it did in 1864, an army of 90,000 men might have 
overwhelmed Clinton at the north and Cornwallis at the 
south, without asking any favours of the French fleet. Had 
it put forth its full strength in 1777, four years of active 
warfare might have been spared, Mr. Lecky explains this 
difference by his favourite hypothesis that the American 
Revolution was the work of a few ultra-radical leaders, with 
whom the people were not generally in sympathy ; and he 
thinks we could not expect to see great heroism or self- 
sacrifice manifested by a people who went to war over what 
he calls a " money dispute." ^ But there is no reason for 
supposing that the loyalists represented the general senti- 
ment of the country in the Revolutionary War any more 
' History of England in the Eighteenth Century, iii. 447. 





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io8 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iii 

than the peace party represented the general sentiment of 
the northern states in the War of Secession. There is no 
reason for supposing that the people were less at heart in 
1 78 1, in fighting for the priceless treasure of self-government, 
than they were in 1864, when they fought for the mainte- 
nance of the pacific principles underlying our Federal Union. 
The differences in the organization of the government, and 
in its power of operating directly upon the people, are quite 
enough to explain the difference between the languid con- 
duct of the earlier war and the energetic conduct of the 
later. 

Impossible as Congress found it to fill the quotas of the 
army, the task of raising a revenue by requisitions upon the 
states was even more discouraging. Every state had its 
own war debt, and several were applicants for foreign loans 
not easy to obtain, so that none could without the greatest 
Extreme difficulty raisc a surplus to hand over to Congress. 
obTalni'if °a '^^^ Continental rag money had ceased to circu- 
revenue \^iq by the end of 1780, and our foreign credit was 
nearly ruined. The French government began to complain 
of the heavy demands which the Americans made upon its 
exchequer, and Vergennes, in sending over a new loan in 
the fall of 1782, warned Franklin that no more must be 
expected. To save American credit from destruction, it 
was at least necessary that the interest on the public debt 
should be paid. For this purpose Congress in 1781 asked 
permission to levy a five per cent, duty on imports. The 
modest request was the signal for a year of angry discussion. 
Again and again it was asked, If taxes could thus be levied 
by any power outside the state, why had we ever opposed 
the Stamp Act or the tea duties ? The question was indeed 
a serious one, and as an instance of reasoning from analogy 
seemed plausible enough. After more than a year Massa- 
chusetts consented, by a bare majority of two in the House 
and one in the Senate, reserving to herself the right of 
appointing the collectors. The bill was then vetoed by 
Governor Hancock, though one day too late, and so it was 



I774-S9 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 109 

saved. But Rhode Island flatly refused her consent, and so 
did Virginia, though Madison earnestly pleaded the cause of 
the public credit. For the current expenses of the govern- 
ment in that same year $9,000,000 were needed. It was 
calculated that $4,000,000 might be raised by a loan, and 
the other $5,000,000 were demanded of the states. At 
the end of the year $422,000 had been collected, not a cent 
of which came from Georgia, the Carolinas, or Delaware. 
Rhode Island, which paid $38,000, did the best of all accord- 
ing to its resources. Of the Continental taxes assessed in 
1783, only one fifth part had been paid by the middle of 
1785. And the worst of it was that no one could point to a 
remedy for this state of things, or assign any probable end 
to it. 

Under such circumstances the public credit sank at home 
as well as abroad. Foreign creditors — even France, who 
had been nothing if not generous with her loans — might be 
made to wait ; but there were creditors at home who, should 
they prove ugly, could not be so easily put off. The dis- 
bandment of the army in the summer of 1783, before the 
British troops had evacuated New York, was hastened by 
the impossibility of paying the soldiers and the dread of 
what they might do under such provocation. Though peace 
had been officially announced, Hamilton and Livingston 
urged that, for the sake of appearances if for no other rea- 
son, the army should be kept together so long as the British 
remained in New York, if not until they should have sur- 
rendered the western frontier posts. But Congress could 
not pay the army, and was afraid of it, — and not Dread of 
without some reason. Discouraged at the length ^^^^'■"^y 
of time which had passed since they had received any 
money, the soldiers had begun to fear lest, now that their 
services were no longer needed, their honest claims would 
be set aside. Among the officers, too, there was grave dis- 
content. In the spring of 1778, after the dreadful winter at 
Valley Forge, several officers had thrown up their commis- 
sions, and others threatened to do likewise. To avert the 



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112 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iii 

danger, Washington had urged Congress to promise half-pay 
for life to such officers as should serve to the end of the 
war. It was only with great difficulty that he succeeded in 
obtaining a promise of half-pay for seven years, and even 
this raised an outcry throughout the country, which seemed 
to dread its natural defenders only less than its enemies. 
In the fall of 1 780, however, in the general depression which 
followed upon the disasters at Charleston and Camden, the 
collapse of the paper money, and the discovery of Arnold's 
treason, there was serious danger that the army would fall 
to pieces. At this critical moment Washington had ear- 
nestly appealed to Congress, and against the strenuous oppo- 
sition of Samuel Adams had at length extorted the promise 
of half -pay for life. In the spring of 1782, seeing the utter 
inability of Congress to discharge its pecuniary obligations, 
many officers began to doubt whether the promise would 
ever be kept. It had been made before the articles of con- 
federation, which required the assent of nine states to any 
such measure, had been finally ratified. It was well known 
that nine states had never been found to favour the measure, 
and it was now feared that it might be repealed or repudi- 
ated, so loud was the popular clamour against it. All this 
comes of republican government, said some of the officers ; 
too many cooks spoil the broth ; a dozen heads are as bad 
as no head ; you do not know whose promises to trust ; a 
monarchy, with a good king whom all men can trust, would 
extricate us from these difficulties. In this mood. Colonel 
Louis Nicola, of the Pennsylvania line, a foreigner by birth, 
addressed a long and well-argued letter to Washington, set- 
Su osed ^^^S forth the troubles of the time, and urging 
scheme for him to comc forward as a saviour of society, and 
Washmg- accept the crown at the hands of his faithful sol- 
ton king ciiei-s. Nicola was an aged man, of excellent char- 
acter, and in making this suggestion he seemed to be acting 
as spokesman of a certain clique or party among the offi- 
cers,— how numerous is not known. Washington instantly 
replied that Nicola could not have found a person to whom 



1783 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 113 

such a scheme could be more odious, and he was at a loss 
to conceive what he had ever done to have it supposed that 
he could for one moment listen to a suggestion so fraught 
with mischief to his country. Lest the affair, becoming 
known, should enhance the popular distrust of the army, 
Washington said nothing about it. But as the year went 
by, and the outcry against half-pay continued, and Congress 
showed symptoms of a willingness to compromise the matter, 
the discontent of the army increased. Officers and soldiers 
brooded alike over their wrongs. " The army," said General 
Macdougall, "is verging to that state which, we are told, 
will make a wise man mad." The peril of the situation was 
increased by the well-meant but injudicious whisperings of 
other public creditors, who believed that if the army would 
only take a firm stand and insist upon a grant of permanent 
funds to Congress for liquidating all public debts, the states 
could probably be prevailed upon to make such a grant. 
Robert Morris, the able secretary of finance, held this opin- 
ion, and did not believe that the states could be brought 
to terms in any other way. His namesake and assistant, 
Gouverneur Morris, held similar views, and gave expression 
to them in February, 1783, in a letter to General Greene, 
who was still commanding in South Carolina. When Greene 
received the letter, he urged upon the legislature of that 
state, in most guarded and moderate language, the para- 
mount need of granting a revenue to Congress, and hinted 
that the army would not be satisfied with anything less. 
The assembly straightway flew into a rage, and shouted, 
" No dictation by a Cromwell ! " South Carolina had con- 
sented to the five per cent, impost, but now she revoked 
it, to show her independence, and Greene's eyes were 
opened at once to the danger of the slightest appearance 
of military intervention in civil affairs. 

At the same time a violent outbreak in the army at 
Newburgh was barely prevented by the unfailing tact of 
Washington. A rumour went about the camp that it was 
generally expected the army would not disband until the 



114 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iii 

question of pay should be settled, and that the public cred- 
itors looked to them to make some such demonstration as 
would overawe the delinquent states. General Gates had 
lately emerged from the retirement in which he had been 
fain to hide himself after Camden, and had rejoined the 
army, where there was now such a field for intrigue. An 
odious aroma of impotent malice clings about his memory 
on this last occasion on which the historian needs to notice 
him. He plotted in secret with officers of the staff and 
others. One of his staff. Major Armstrong, wrote an anon- 
ymous appeal to the troops, and another, Colonel Barber, 
caused it to be circulated about the camp. It named the 
next day for a meeting to consider grievances. Its language 
was inflammatory. " My friends ! " it said, "after 

The dan- , rr • ^ 

gerous seven long years your surrermg courage has con- 
Iddress'^'' ducted the United States of America through a 
March ii, doubtful and bloody war ; and peace returns to 
bless — whom "i A country willing to redress your 
wrongs, cherish your worth, and reward your services .^ Or 
is it rather a country that tramples upon your rights, dis- 
dains your cries, and insults your distresses .-*... If such 
be your treatment while the swords you wear are necessary 
for the defence of America, what have you to expect when 
those very swords, the instruments and companions of your 
glory, shall be taken from your sides, and no mark of mili- 
tary distinction left but your wants, infirmities, and scars ? 
If you have sense enough to discover and spirit to oppose 
tyranny, whatever garb it may assume, awake to your situa- 
tion. If the present moment be lost, your threats hereafter 
will be as empty as your entreaties now. Appeal from the 
justice to the fears of government, and suspect the man who 
would advise to longer forbearance." 

Better English has seldom been wasted in a worse cause. 
Washington, the man who was aimed at in the last sentence, 
got hold of the paper next day, just in time, as he .said, "to 
arrest the feet that stood wavering on a precipice." The 
memory of the revolt of the Pennsylvania line, which had so 



1783 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 115 

alarmed the people in 1781, was still fresh in men's minds ; 
and here was an invitation to more wholesale mutiny, which 
could hardly fail to end in bloodshed, and might precipi- 
tate the perplexed and embarrassed country into civil war. 
Washington issued a general order, recognizing the exist- 
ence of the manifesto, but overruling it so far as to appoint 




.\ ; 






Jj L<^' i / '' 

/ ' ' ■ \ : 

I i 
i ■ 




the meeting for a later day, with the senior major-general, 
who happened to be Gates, to preside. This order, which 
neither discipline nor courtesy could disregard, in a measure 
tied Gates's hands, while it gave Washington time to ascer- 
tain the extent of the disaffection. On the appointed day 
he suddenly came into the meeting, and amid profoundest 
silence broke forth in a most eloquent and touching speech. 
Sympathizing keenly with the sufferings of his hearers, and 
fully admitting their claims, he appealed to their better feel- 



Ii6 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

ings, and reminded them of the terrible difficulties under 
which Congress laboured, and of the folly of putting them- 
selves in the wrong. He still counselled forbearance as the 
greatest of victories, and with consummate skill he charac- 
terized the anonymous appeal as undoubtedly the work of 
some crafty emissary of the British, eager to disgrace the 
army which they had not been able to vanquish. All were 
hushed by that majestic presence and those solemn tones. 
The knowledge that he had refused all pay, while enduring 
more than any other man in the room, gave added weight 
to every word. In proof of the good faith of Congress he 
began reading a letter from one of the members, when, 
finding his sight dim, he paused and took from his pocket 
the new pair of spectacles which the astronomer David Rit- 
tenhouse had just sent him. He had never worn spectacles 
in public, and as he put them on he said, in his simple man- 
ner and with his pleasant smile, " I have grown gray in your 
service, and now find myself growing blind." While all 
hearts were softened he went on reading the letter, and then 
withdrew, leaving the meeting to its deliberations. There 
was a sudden and mighty revulsion of feeling. A motion 
was reported declaring "unshaken confidence in the justice 
of Congress;" and it was added that "the officers of the 
American army view with abhorrence and reject with dis- 
dain the infamous proposals contained in a late anonymous 
address to them." The crestfallen Gates, as chairman, had 
nothing to do but put the question and report it carried 
unanimously ; for if any still remained obdurate they no 
longer dared to show it. Washington immediately set forth 
the urgency of the case in an earnest letter to Congress, and 
one week later the matter was settled by an act commuting 
half-pay for life into a gross sum equal to five years' full pay, 
to be discharged at once by certificates bearing interest at 
six per cent. Such poor paper was all that Congress had to 
pay with, but it was all ultimately redeemed ; and while the 
commutation was advantageous to the government, it was at 
the same time greatly for the interest of the officers, while 



1783 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 



117 



they were looking out for new means of livelihood, to have 
their claims adjusted at once, and to receive something 
which could do duty as a respectable sum of money. 

Nothing, however, could prevent the story of the New- 
burgh affair from being published all over the country, and 




GEORGE WASHINGTON 



it greatly added to the distrust with which the army was 
regarded on general principles. What might have happened 
was forcibly suggested by a miserable occurrence in June, 
about two months after the disbanding of the army had 
begun. Some eighty soldiers of the Pennsylvania line, mu- 
tinous from discomfort and want of pay, broke from their 
camp at Lancaster and marched down to Philadelphia, led by 
a sergeant or two. They drew up in line before the state 
house, where Congress was assembled, and after passing the 



ii8 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, in 

grog began throwing stones and pointing their muskets at 
the windows. They demanded pay, and threat- 

Confifrcss • 

driven from encd, if it were not forthcoming, to seize the mem- 
phk^by^' bers of Congress and hold them as hostages, or 
mutinous q\^q ^q break into the bank where the federal 

soldiers, 

June 21, deposits were kept. The executive council of 
Pennsylvania sat in the same building, and so the 
federal government appealed to the state government for 
protection. The appeal was fruitless. President Dickinson 
had a few state militia at his disposal, but did not dare to 
summon them, for fear they should side with the rioters. 
The city government was equally listless, and the townsfolk 
went their ways as if it were none of their business ; and so 
Congress fled across the river and on to Princeton, where 
the college afforded it shelter. Thus in a city of thirty-two 
thousand inhabitants, the largest city in the country, the 
government of the United States, the body which had just 
completed a treaty browbeating England and France, was 
ignominiously turned out-of-doors by a handful of drunken 
mutineers. The affair was laughed at by many, but sensible 
men keenly felt the disgrace, and asked what would be 
thought in Europe of a government which could not even 
command the services of the police. The army became 
more unpopular than ever, and during the summer and fall 
many town meetings were held in New England, condemn- 
ing the Commutation Act. Are we not poor enough already, 
cried the farmers, that we must be taxed to support in idle 
luxury a riotous rabble of soldiery, or create an aristocracy 
of men with gold lace and epaulets, who will presently plot 
against our liberties .'' The Massachusetts legislature pro- 
tested ; the people of Connecticut meditated resistance. A 
convention was held at Middletown in December, at which 
two thirds of the towns in the state were represented, and 
the best method of overruling Congress was discussed. 
Much high-flown eloquence was wasted, but the convention 
broke up without deciding upon any course of action. The 
matter had become so serious that wise men changed their 



1783 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 



119 



minds, and disapproved of proceedings calculated to throw 
Congress into contempt. Samuel Adams, who had almost 
violently opposed the grant of half-pay and had been dissat- 
isfied with the Commutation Act, now came completely over 
to the other side. Whatever might be thought of the policy 




REAR VIEW OF INDEPENDENCE HALL 



of the measures, he said, Congress had an undoubted right 
to adopt them. The army had been necessary for the 
defence of our liberties, and the public faith had been 
pledged to the payment of the soldiers. States were as 



120 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iii 

much bound as individuals to fulfil their engagements, and 
did not the sacred Scriptures say of an honest man that, 
though he svveareth to his own hurt, he changeth not ? 
Such plain truths prevailed in the Boston town meeting, 
which voted that " the commutation is wisely blended with 
the national debt." The agitation in New England pre- 
sently came to an end, and in this matter the course of Con- 
gress was upheld. 

In order fully to understand this extravagant distrust of 
the army, we have to take into account another incident of 
the summer of 1783, which gave rise to a discussion that 
sent its reverberation all over the civilized world. Men of 
the present generation who in childhood rummaged in their 
grandmothers' cosy garrets can hardly fail to have come 
across scores of musty and worm-eaten pamphlets, their 
yellow pages crowded with italics and exclamation points, 
inveighing in passionate language against the wicked and 
dangerous society of the Cincinnati. Just before the army 
was disbanded, the officers, at the suggestion of General 
Knox, formed themselves into a society, for the purpose 
of keeping up their friendly intercourse and cherishing the 
heroic memories of the struggle in which they had taken 
part. With the fondness for classical analogies which char- 
acterized that time, they likened themselves to Cin- 

Order of , -' 

the Gin- cinuatus, who was taken from the plough to lead 

cinnati . , , . . ^ 

an army, and returned to his quiet farm so soon as 
his warlike duties were over. They were modern Cincin- 
nati. A constitution and by-laws were established for the 
order, and Washington was unanimously chosen to be its 
president. Its branches in the several states were to hold 
meetings each Fourth of July, and there was to be a general 
meeting of the whole society every year in the month of 
May. French officers who had taken part in the war were 
admitted to membership, and the order was to be perpetu- 
ated by descent through the eldest male representatives of 
the families of the members. It was further provided that 
a limited membership should from time to time be granted, 



122 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 



CHAP. Ill 



as a distinguished honour, to able and worthy citizens, with- 
out regard to the memories of the war. A golden Ameri- 
can eagle attached to a blue ribbon edged with white was 
the sacred badge of the order ; and to this emblem especial 
favour was shown at the French court, where the insignia 
of foreign states were generally, it is 
said, regarded with jealousy. No po- 
litical purpose was to be subserved by 
this order of the Cincinnati, save in 
so far as the members pledged to one 
another their determination to pro- 
mote and cherish the union between 
the states. In its main intent the 
society was to be a kind of masonic 
brotherhood, charged with the duty 
of aiding the widows and the orphan 
children of its members in time of 
need. Innocent as all this was, how- 
ever, the news of the establishment of 
such a society was greeted with a howl 
of indignation all over the country. It 
was thought that its founders were in- 
spired by a deep-laid political scheme 
for centralizing the government and 
setting up a hereditary aristocracy. 
The press teemed with invective and 
ridicule, and the feeling thus expressed 
by the penny-a-liners was shared by 
able men accustomed to weigh their 
words. Franklin dealt with it in a 
spirit of banter, and John Adams in a spirit of abhorrence ; 
while Samuel Adams pointed out the dangers inherent in the 
principle of hereditary transmission of honours, and in the 
admission of foreigners into a secret association possessed 
of political influence in America. What ! cried the men of 
Massachusetts. Have we thrown overboard the effete insti- 
tutions of Europe, only to have them straightway introduced 




BADGE OF THE CINCINNATI 



CONS IDERATIONS 

ON THE 

SOCIETY OR ORDER 

O F 

CINCINNATI; 

LATELY INSTITUTED 

By the Major-Generals, Brigadier-Generals, and 
Other Officers of the American Army. 

PROVING THAT IT CREATES 

A RACE OF HEREDITARY PATRICIANS, 

R 

NOBILITY. 

JNTERSPERSED WITH REMARKS 

On its C O N S E Q^ U E N C E S to the Ftieedo« 

and Happiness of the Republic. 

Addreffed to the PEOPLE of SouTH- 
Carohna, and their Representatives. 



By CAS S I U S. 

Suppofcd to be written by /E DA N US BURKE, Efquire, 
one of the Chiet Juftices of the State ofSouth Carolina. 



Blovii ye the Trumpet m Zioii. The Bible. 



PHILADELPHIA 

Printed and Sold by ROBERT BELL, in Third-Sirat. 

Price, finf-fixth of a Dollar^ M,dcc,lxxkiu 



124 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

among us again, after this plausible and surreptitious fashion? 
At Cambridge it was thought that the general sentiment of 
the university was in favour of suppressing the order by act 
of legislature. One of the members, who was a candidate for 
senator in the spring of 1784, found it necessary to resign 
in order to save his chances for election. Rhode Island pro- 
posed to disfranchise such of her citizens as belonged to the 
order, albeit her most eminent citizen, Nathanael Greene, 
was one of them, ^danus Burke, a judge of the Supreme 
Court of South Carolina, wrote a violent pamphlet against 
the society of the Cincinnati under the pseudonym of Cas- 
sius, the slayer of tyrants ; and this diatribe, translated and 
amplified by Mirabeau, awakened dull echoes among readers 
of Rousseau and haters of privilege in all parts of Europe. 
A swarm of brochures in rejoinder and rebutter issued from 
the press, and the nineteenth century had come in before 
the controversy was quite forgotten. 

It is easy for us now to smile at this outcry against the 
Cincinnati as much ado about nothing, seeing as we do that 
in the absence of territorial jurisdiction or especial political 
privileges an order of nobility cannot be created by the mere 
inheritance of empty titles or badges. For example, since 
the great revolution which swept away the landlordship and 
fiscal exemptions of the French nobility, a marquisate or a 
dukedom in France is of scarcely more political importance 
than a doctorate of laws in a New England university. 
Men were nevertheless not to be blamed in 1783 for their 
hostility toward that ghost of the hereditary principle which 
the Cincinnati sought to introduce. In a free industrial 
society like that of America it had no proper place or mean- 
ing ; and the attempt to set up such a form might well have 
been cited in illustration of the partial reversion toward 
militancy which eight years of warfare had effected. The 
absurdity of the situation was quickly realized by Washing- 
ton, and he prevailed upon the society, in its first annual 
meeting of May, 1784, to abandon the principle of hereditary 
membership. The agitation was thus allayed, and in the 



1783 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 125 

presence of graver questions the much-dreaded brotherhood 
gradually ceased to occupy popular attention. 

The opposition to the Cincinnati is not fully explained 
unless we consider it in connection with Nicola's letter, the 
Newburgh address, and the flight of Congress to Princeton, 
The members of the Cincinnati were pledged to do whatever 
they could to promote the union between the states ; the 
object of the Newburgh address was to enlist the army in 
behalf of the public creditors, and in some vaguely-imagined 
fashion to force a stronger government upon the country ; 
the letter of Nicola shows that at least some of the officers 
had harboured the notion of a monarchy ; and the weakness 
of Congress had been revealed in the most startling manner 
by its flight before a squad of mutineers. It is one of the 
lessons of history that, in the virtual absence of a central 
government for which a need is felt, the want is apt to be 
supplied by the strongest organization in the country, what- 
ever that may happen to be. It was in this way that the 
French army, a few years later, got control of the govern- 
ment of France and made its general emperor. In 1783, if 
the impotence of Congress were to be as explicitly acknow- 
ledged as it was implicitly felt, the only national organization 
left in the country was the army, and when this was dis- 
banded it seemed nevertheless to prolong its life under a 
new and dangerous form in the brotherhood of the Cincin- 
nati. The cession of western lands to the confederacy was, 
moreover, completed at about this time, and one of the uses 
to which the new territory was to be put was the payment 
of claims due to the soldiers. It was distinctly feared, as is 
shown in a letter from Samuel Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 
that the members of the Cincinnati would acquire large 
tracts of western land under this arrangement, and, import- 
ing peasants from Germany, would grant farms to them on 
terms of military service and fealty, thus introducing into 
America a kind of feudal system. In order to forestall 
any such movement, it was provided by Congress that in 
any new states formed out of the western territory no 



126 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

person holding a hereditary title should be admitted to citi- 
zenship. 

From the weakness of Congress as illustrated in its 
inability to raise money to pay the public debt and meet the 
current expenses of government, and from the popular dread 
of military usurpation which went along with the uneasy 
consciousness of that weakness, we have now to turn to 
another group of affairs in which the same point is still 
further illustrated and emphasized. We have seen how the 
commissioners of the United States in Paris had succeeded 
in making a treaty of peace with Great Britain on extremely 
favourable terms. So unpopular was the treaty in England, 
on account of the great concessions made to the Americans, 
that, as we have seen, the fall of Lord Shelburne's ministry 
Congress ^^^ occasioued thereby. As an offset to these 
finds itself liberal concessions, of which the most considerable 

unable to r i a • i • 

carry out was the acknowledgment of the American claim 
sio^nror' to the northwestern territory, our confederate 
the treaty government was pledged to do all in its power to 
effect certain concessions which were demanded by England. 
That the American loyalists, whose property had been con- 
fiscated by various state governments, should be indemni- 
fied for their losses was a claim which, whatever Americans 
might think of it, England felt bound in honour to urge. 
That private debts, due from American to British creditors, 
should be faithfully discharged was the plainest dictate of 
common honesty. Congress, as we have seen, was bound 
by the treaty to recommend to the several states to desist 
from the persecution of Tories, and to give them an 
opportunity of recovering their estates ; and it had been 
further agreed that all private debts should be discharged at 
their full value in sterling money. It now turned out that 
Congress was powerless to carry out the provisions of the 
treaty upon either of these points. The recommendations 
concerning the Tories were greeted with a storm of popular 
indignation. Since the beginning of the war these unfortu- 
nate persons had been treated with severity both by the 



1783 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 127 

legislatures and by the people. Many had been banished ; 
others had fled the country, and against these Persecution 
refugees various harsh laws had been enacted. °^ ■^°"" 
Their estates had been confiscated, and their return pro- 
hibited under penalty of imprisonment or death. Many 
others, who had remained in the country, were objects of 
suspicion and dislike in states where they had not, as in 
New York and the Carolinas, openly aided the enemy or 
taken part in Indian atrocities. Now, on the conclusion 
of peace, in utter disregard of Congress, fresh measures of 
vengeance were taken against these " fawning spaniels," as 
they were called, these "tools and minions of Britain." An 
article in the " Massachusetts Chronicle " expressed the 
common feeling : " As Hannibal swore never to be at peace 
with the Romans, so let every Whig swear, by his abhor- 
rence of slavery, by liberty and religion, by the shades of 
departed friends who have fallen in battle, by the ghosts of 
those of our brethren who have been destroyed on board of 
prison-ships and in loathsome dungeons, never to be at peace 
with those fiends the refugees, whose thefts, murders, and 
treasons have filled the cup of woe." Tons of pamphlets, 
issued under the customary Latin pseudonyms, were filled 
with this truculent bombast ; and like sentiments were 
thundered from the pulpit by men who had quite forgotten 
for the moment their Christian duty of preaching recon- 
ciliation and forgiveness of injuries. Why should not these 
wretches, it was sarcastically asked, be driven at once from 
the country } Of course they could not desire to live under 
a free government which they had been at such pains to 
destroy. Let them go forthwith to his majesty's dominions, 
and live under the government they preferred. It would 
never do to let them stay here, to plot treason at their lei- 
sure ; in a few years they would get control of all the states, 
and either hand them over to Great Britain again, or set up 
a Tory despotism on American soil. Such was the rubbish 
that passed current as argument with the majority of the 
people. A small party of moderate Whigs saw its absurdity. 



128 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

and urged that the Tories had much better remain at home, 
where they had lost all political influence, than go and 
found unfriendl)' colonies to the northward. The moderate 
Whigs were in favour of heeding the recommendation of 
Congress, and acting in accordance with the spirit of the 
treaty ; and these humane and sensible views were shared 
by Gadsden and Marion in South Carolina, by Theodore 
Sedgwick in Massachusetts, and by Greene, Hamilton, and 
Jay. But any man who held such opinions, no matter how 
conspicuous his services had been, ran the risk of being 
accused of Tory sympathies. " Time-serving Whigs " and 
" trimmers " were the strangely inappropriate epithets 
hurled at men who, had they been in the slightest degree 
time-servers, would have shrunk from the thankless task of 
upholding good sense and humanity in the teeth of popular 
prejudice. 

In none of the states did the loyalists receive severer 
treatment than in New York, and for obvious reasons. 
Throughout the war the frontier had been the scene of atro- 
cities such as no other state, save perhaps South Carolina, 
had witnessed. Cherry Valley and IMinisink were names of 
horror not easily forgotten, and the fate of Lieutenant Boyd 
and countless other victims called loudly for vengeance. 
The sins of the Butlers and their bloodthirsty followers were 
visited in robbery and insult upon unoffending men, who 
were like them in nothing but in being labelled with the 
epithet ''Tory." During the seven years that the city of 
New York had been occupied by the British army, many of 
these loyalists had found shelter there. The Whig citizens, 
on the other hand, had been driven off the island, to shift 
as best they might in New Jersey, while their comfortable 
homes were seized and assigned by militar}- orders to these 
very Tories. For seven years the refugee Whigs from 
across the Hudson had looked upon New York with feelings 
like those with which the mediaeval exile from Florence or 
Pisa was wont to regard his native city. They saw in it the 
home of enemies who had robbed them, the prison-house of 



1783 



THE LEAGUE OF PRIENDSHIP 



129 



gallant friends penned up to die of wanton ill-usage in foul 
ships' holds in the harbour. When at last the king's troops 
left the city, it was felt that a great day of reckoning had 
arrived. In September, 1783, two months before the evacu- 
ation, more than twelve thousand men, women, and children 
embarked for the Bahamas or for Nova Scotia, rather than 
stay and face the troubles that were coming. Many of these 
were refined and cultivated persons, and not all had been 
actively hostile to the American cause ; many had simply 
accepted British protection. Against those who remained 





ill 11/ *^*' 

I.M 




'W!*.iL.i 



I. 




STONE BRIDGE WHERE BROADWAY NOW CROSSES CANAI, STREET 

in the city the returning Whigs now proceeded with great 
severity. The violent party was dominant in the legislature, 
and George Clinton, the governor, put himself conspicuously 
at its head. A bill was passed disfranchising all such per- 
sons as had voluntarily stayed in neighbourhoods occupied 
by the British troops ; their offence was called misprision of 
treason. But the council vetoed this bill as too wholesale 
in its operation, for it would have left some districts without 
voters enough to hold an election. An "iron-clad oath" 
was adopted instead, and no one was allowed to vote unless 
he could swear that he had never in anywise abetted the 
enemy. It was voted that no Tory who had left the state 



I30 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

should be permitted to return ; and a bill was passed known 
The Tres- as the Trespass Act, whereby all persons who had 
N^ew York^ quit their homes by reason of the enemy's pres- 
^784 ence might recover damages in an action of tres- 

pass against such persons as had since taken possession of 
the premises. Defendants in such cases were expressly 
barred from pleading a military order in justification of their 
possession. As there was scarcely a building on the island 
of New York that had not thus changed hands during the 
British occupation, it was easy to foresee what confusion 
must ensue. Everybody whose house had once been, for 
ever so few days, in the hands of a Tory now rushed into 
court with his action of trespass. Damages were rated at 
most exorbitant figures, and it became clear that the mis- 
deeds of the enemy were about to be made the excuse for 
a carnival of spoliation, when all at once the test case of 
Rutgers v. Waddington brought upon the scene a sturdy 
defender of order, an advocate who was soon to become one 
of the foremost personages in American history. 

Of all the young men of that day, save perhaps William 
Pitt, the most precocious was Alexander Hamilton. He 
had already given promise of a great career before the 
Alexander breaking out of the war. He was born on the 
Hamilton -^^^^^^ ^^ ^qVis, in the West Indies, in 1757. His 
father belonged to that famous Scottish clan from which 
have come one of the most learned metaphysicians and one 
of the most original mathematicians of modern times. His 
mother was a French lady, of Huguenot descent, and bio- 
graphers have been fond of tracing in his character the 
various qualities of his parents. To the shrewdness and per- 
sistence, the administrative ability, and the taste for abstract 
reasoning which we are wont to find associated in the highest 
type of Scottish mind he joined a truly French vivacity and 
grace. His earnestness, sincerity, and moral courage were 
characteristic alike of Puritan and of Huguenot. In the 
course of his short life he exhibited a remarkable many- 
sidedness. So great was his genius for organization that in 



1783 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 131 







rr-- - -irf ^ « 



i.i:^ii:\.\Kii s >ti-:aim .\\s 1 kom site of Broadway and broumi mklli 

many essential respects the American government is moving 
to-day along the lines which he was the first to mark out. 
As an economist he shared to some extent in the short- 
comings of the age which preceded Adam Smith, but in the 
special department of finance he has been equalled by no 
other American statesman save Albert Gallatin. He was a 
convincing orator and brilliant writer, an excellent lawyer, 
and a clear-headed and industrious student of political his- 
tory. He was also eminent as a political leader, although he 
lacked faith in democratic government, and a generous impa- 
tience of temperament sometimes led him to prefer short and 
arbitrary by-paths toward desirable ends, which can never 
be securely reached save along the broad but steep and 
arduous road of popular conviction. But with all Hamilton's 
splendid qualities, nothing about him is more remarkable 
than the early age at which these were developed. At the 
age of fifteen an able newspaper article brought him into 
such repute in the little island of Nevis that he was sent to 
New York to avail himself of the best advantages afforded 
by the King's College, now known as Columbia. He had at 
first no definite intention of becoming an American citizen, 
but the thrilling events of the time appealed strongly to the 
earnest heart and powerful intelligence of this wonderful 



132 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

boy. At a gathering of the people of New York in July, 
1774, his generous blood warmed, till a resistless impulse 
brought him on his feet to speak to the assembled multitude. 
It was no company of half-drunken idlers that thronged 
about him, but an assemblage of grave and responsible citi- 
zens, who looked with some astonishment upon this boy 
of seventeen years, short and slight in stature, yet erect 
and Caesar-like in bearing, with firm set mouth and great, 
dark, earnest eyes. His strong and clean-cut speech, full of 
sense and without a syllable of bombast, held his hearers 
entranced, and from that day Alexander Hamilton was a 
marked man. He began publishing anonymous pamphlets, 
which at first were attributed by some to Jay, and by others 
to Livingston. When their authorship was discovered, the 
loyalist party tried in vain to buy off the formidable youth. 
He kept up the pamphlet war, in the course of which he woe- 
fully defeated Dr. Cooper, the Tory president of the college ; 
but shortly afterward he defended the doctor's house against 
an angry mob, until that unpopular gentleman had succeeded 
in making his escape to a British shijD. Hamilton served in 
the army throughout the war, for the most part as aid and 
secretary to Washington ; but in 1781 he was a colonel in 
the line, and stormed a redoubt at Yorktown with distin- 
guished skill and bravery. He married a daughter of Philip 
Schuyler, began the practice of law, and in 1782, at the age 
of twenty-five, was chosen a delegate to Congress. 

In 1784, when the Trespass Act threw New York into 
confusion, Hamilton had come to be regarded as one of the 
most powerful advocates in the country. In the test case 
which now came before the courts he played a bold and 
manly part. Elizabeth Rutgers was a widow, who had fled 
from New York after its capture by General Howe. Her 
The case of Confiscated estate had passed into the hands of 
Wadding^' Joshua Waddiugtou, a rich Tory merchant, and 
*^°" she now brought suit under the Trespass Act for 

its recovery. It was a case in which popular sympathy was 
naturally and strongly enlisted in behalf of the poor widow. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



134 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

That she should have been turned out of house and home 
was one of the many gross instances of wickedness wrought 
by the war. On the other hand, the disturbance wrought 
by the enforcement of the Trespass Act was already creat- 
ing fresh wrongs much faster than it was righting old ones ; 
and it is for such reasons as this that both in the common 
law and in the law of nations the principle has been firmly 
established that "the fruits of immovables belong to the 
captor as long as he remains in actual possession of them." 
The Trespass Act contravened this principle, and it also 
contravened the treaty. It moreover placed the state of 
New York in an attitude of defiance toward Congress, 
which had made the treaty and expressly urged upon the 
states to suspend their legislation against the Tories. On 
large grounds of public policy, therefore, the Trespass Act 
deserved to be set aside by the courts, and when Hamilton 
was asked to serve as counsel for the defendant he accepted 
the odious task without hesitation. There can be no better 
proof of his forensic ability than his winning a verdict, in 
such a case as this, from a hostile court that was largely 
influenced by the popular excitement. The decision nulli- 
fied the Trespass Act, and forthwith mass meetings of the 
people and an extra session of the legislature condemned 
this action of the court. Hamilton was roundly abused, and 
his conduct was attributed to unworthy motives. But he 
faced the people as boldly as he had faced the court, and 
published a letter, under the signature of Phocion, setting 
forth in the clearest light the injustice and impolicy of 
extreme measures against the Tories. The popular wrath 
and disgust at Hamilton's course found expression in a 
letter from one Isaac Ledyard, a hot-headed pot-house poli- 
tician, who signed himself Mentor. A war of pamphlets 
ensued between Mentor and Phocion. It was genius pitted 
against dulness, reason against passion ; and reason wielded 
by genius won the day. The more intelligent and respect- 
able citizens reluctantly admitted that Hamilton's arguments 
were unanswerable. A club of boon companions, to which 



1784 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 135 

Ledyard belonged, made the same admission by the pecuHar 
manner in which it undertook to silence him. It was gravely 
proposed that the members of the club should pledge them- 
selves one after another to challenge Hamilton to mortal 
combat, until some one of them should have the good 
fortune to kill him ! The scheme met with general favour, 
but was defeated by the exertions of Ledyard himself, whose 
zeal was not ardent enough to condone treachery and mur- 
der. The incident well illustrates the intense bitterness of 
political passion at the time, as Hamilton's conduct shows 
him in the light of a courageous and powerful defender of 
the central government. For nothing was more significant 
in the verdict which he had obtained than its implicit asser- 
tion of the rights of the United States as against the legis- 
lature of a single state. 

In spite of the efforts of such men as Hamilton, life was 
made very uncomfortable for the Tories. In some states 
they were subjected to mob violence. Instances of tarring 
and feathering were not uncommon. The legislature of 
South Carolina was honourably distinguished for the good 
faith with which it endeavoured to enforce the recommen- 
dation of Congress ; but the people, unable to forget the 
smoking ruins of plundered homes, were less lenient. 
Notices were posted ordering prominent loyalists to leave 
the country ; the newspapers teemed with savage warnings ; 
and finally, of those who tarried beyond a certain time, 
many were shot or hanged to trees. This extremity of 
bitterness, however, did not long continue. The instances 
of physical violence were mostly confined to the first two or 
three years after the close of the war. In most of the states 
the confiscating acts were after a while repealed, and many 
of the loyalists were restored to their estates. Emigration 
But the emigration which took place between 1783 °f Tones 
and 1785 was very large. It has been estimated that 
100,000 persons, or nearly three per cent, of the total white 
population, quit the country. Those from the southern 
states went mostly to the Bahamas and Florida ; while those 



136 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iii 

from the north laid the foundation of new British states in 
New Brunswick and Upper Canada. Many of these refugees 
appealed to the British government for indemnification for 
their losses, and their claims received prompt attention. A 
parliamentary commission was appointed to inquire into the 
matter, and by the year 1790 some $16,000,000 had been 
distributed among about 4,000 sufferers, while many others 
received grants of crown-lands, or half-pay as military offi- 
cers, or special annuities, or appointments in the civil ser- 
vice. On the whole, the compensation which the refugees 
received from Parliament seems to have been much more 
ample than that which the ragged soldiers of our Revolu- 
tionary army ever received from Congress. 

While the political passions resulting in this forced 
emigration of loyalists were such as naturally arise in the 
course of a civil war, the historian cannot but regret that 
the United States should have been deprived of the services 
of so many excellent citizens. In nearly all such cases of 
wholesale popular vengeance, it is the wrong individuals who 
suffer. We could well afford to dispense with the border 
ruffians who abetted the Indians in their carnival of burning 
and scalping, but the refugees of 1784 were for the most 
part peaceful and unoffending families, above the average in 
education and refinement. The vicarious suffering inflicted 
upon them set nothing right, but simply increased the mass 
of wrong, while to the general interests of the country the 
loss of such people was in every way damaging. The 
immediate political detriment wrought at the time, though 
it is that which most nearly concerns this moment of our 
story, was probably the least important. Since Congress 
was manifestly unable to carry out the treaty, an excuse was 
furnished to England for declining to fulfil some of its pro- 
visions. In regard to the loyalists, indeed, the treaty had 
recognized that Congress possessed but an advisory power ; 
but in the other provision concerning the payment of private 
debts, which in the popular mind was very much mixed up 
with the question of justice to the loyalists, the faith of the 



1784 THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 137 

United States was distinctly pledged. On this point, also, 
Congress was powerless to enforce the treaty. Massachu- 
setts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and 
South Carolina had all enacted laws obstructing con-rress 
the collection of British debts ; and in fiat defiance ^^ unable 

to entorce 

of the treaty these statutes remained in force payment 

until after the downfall of the Confederation. The British 

states were aware that such conduct needed an Engf^nd' 

excuse, and one was soon forthcoming. Many retaliates 

'^ _ _ ^ by retusing 

negroes had left the country with the British tosurren-'^ 

. der the 

fleet : some doubtless had sought their freedom ; western 
others, perhaps, had been kidnapped as booty, and p°^^^ 
sold to planters in the West Indies. The number of these 
black men carried away by the fleet had been magnified 
tenfold by popular rumour. Complaints had been made to 
Sir Guy Carleton, but he had replied that any negro who 
came within his lines was presumably a freeman, and he 
could not lend his aid in remanding such persons to slavery. 
Jay, as one of the treaty commissioners, gave it as his 
opinion that Carleton was quite right in this, but he thought 
that where a loss of slaves could be proved. Great Britain 
was bound to make pecuniary compensation to the owners. 
The matter was wrangled over for years in the state legis- 
latures, in town and county meetings, at dinner-tables, and 
in taverns, with the general result that, until such compen- 
sation should be made, the statutes hindering the collection 
of debts would not be repealed. In retaliation for this. 
Great Britain refused to withdraw her garrisons from the 
northwestern fortresses,^ which the treaty had surrendered 
to the United States. This measure was very keenly felt 
by the people. As an assertion of superior strength, it was 
peculiarly galling to our weak and divided confederacy, and 
it also wrought us direct practical injury. It encouraged 
the Indian tribes in their depredations on the frontier, and 
it deprived American merchants of a lucrative trade in furs. 

^ These were Ogdensburgh, Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, and Macki- 
naw, with a few others of less importance. 



138 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, hi 

In the spring of 1787 there were advertised for sale in Lon- 
don more than 360,000 skins, worth $1,200,000 at the lowest 
estimate ; and had the posts been surrendered according to 
the treaty, all this would probably have passed through 
the hands of American merchants. The London fur traders 
were naturally unwilling to lose their control over this busi- 
ness, and in the language of modern politics they brought 
" pressure " to bear on government to retain the fortresses 
as long as possible. The American refusal to pay British 
creditors furnished a plausible excuse, while the weakness 
of Congress made any kind of reprisal impossible ; and it 
was not until Washington's second term as president, after 
our national credit had been restored and the strength of 
our new government made manifest, that Great Britain sur- 
rendered this chain of strongholds commanding the woods 
and waters of our northwestern frontier. 



CHAPTER IV 

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

At the close of the eighteenth century the barbarous 
superstitions of the Middle Ages concerning trade between 
nations still flourished with scarcely diminished vitality. 
The epoch-making work of Adam Smith had been published 
in the same year in which the United States declared their 
independence. The one was the great scientific event, as 
the other was the great political event of the age ; but of 
neither the one nor the other were the scope and purport 
fathomed at the time. Among the foremost statesmen, 
those who, like Shelburne and Gallatin, understood the prin- 
ciples of the "Wealth of Nations " were few indeed. The 
simple principle that when two parties trade both Barbarous 
must be gainers, or one would soon stop trading, tionTabout 
was generally lost sight of ; and most commercial ^'^^^^ 
legislation proceeded upon the theory that in trade, as in 
gambling or betting, what the one party gains the other 
must lose. Hence towns, districts, and nations surrounded 
themselves with walls of legislative restrictions intended to 
keep out the monster Trade, or to admit him only on strict- 
est proof that he could do no harm. On this barbarous 
theory, the use of a colony consisted in its being a customer 
which you could compel to trade with yourself, while you 
could prevent it from trading with anybody else ; and having 
secured this point, you could cunningly arrange things by 
legislation so as to throw all the loss upon this enforced 
customer, and keep all the gain to yourself. In the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries all the commercial legisla- 
tion of the great colonizing states was based upon this theory 
of the use of a colony. For effectiveness, it shared to some 



I40 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

extent the characteristic features of legislation for making 
water run up hill. It retarded commercial development all 
over the world, fostered monopolies, made the rich richer 
and the poor poorer, hindered the interchange of ideas and 
the refinement of manners, and sacrificed millions of human 
lives in misdirected warfare ; but what it was intended to do 
it did not do. The sturdy race of smugglers — those de- 
spised pioneers of a higher civilization — thrived in defiance 
of kings and parliaments ; and as it was impossible to carry- 
out such legislation thoroughly without stopping trade alto- 
gether, colonies and mother countries contrived to increase 
their wealth in spite of it. The colonies, however, under- 
stood the animus of the theory in so far as it was directed 
against them, and the revolutionary sentiment in America 
had gained much of its strength from the protest against 
this one-sided justice. In one of its most important aspects, 
the Revolution was a deadly blow aimed at the old system of 
trade restrictions. It was to a certain extent a step in real- 
ization of the noble doctrines of Adam Smith. But where 
the scientific thinker grasped the whole principle involved 
in the matter, the practical statesmen saw only the special 
application which seemed to concern them for the moment. 
They all understood that the Revolution had set them free 
to trade with other countries than England, but very few of 
them understood that, whatever countries trade together, the 
one cannot hope to benefit by impoverishing the other. 

This point is much better understood in England to-day 
than in the United States ; but a century ago there was 
little to choose between the two countries in ignorance of 
political economy. England had gained great wealth and 
power through trade with her rapidly growing American 
colonies. One of her chief fears, in the event of American 
independence, had been the possible loss of that trade. 
English merchants feared that American commerce, when 
no longer confined to its old paths by legislation, would 
somehow find its way to France and Holland and Spain and 
other countries, until nothing would be left for England. 



1783 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 141 

The Revolution worked no such change, however. The 
principal trade of the United States was with England, as 
before, because England could best supply the goods that 
Americans wanted ; and it is such considerations, and not 
acts of Parliament, that determine trade in its natural and 
proper channels. In 1783 Pitt introduced into Parliament 
a bill which would have secured mutual unconditional free 
trade between the two countries ; and this was what such 
men as Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison desired. Could 
this bill have passed, the hard feelings occasioned by the war 
would soon have died out, the commercial progress of both 
countries would have been promoted, and the stupid mea- 
sures which led to a second war within thirty years might 



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y^ ^'^•" V IliS TICKET etitiiles the Bearer to receive | 
I ^.v *; T "'*' ^ ' ">^ Prize as cay be dra'Vvn againii it* Num- v 
! i^ \^ iccor-dun^ to a Refoluucv. of CONGICESi, ; 



FACSIMILE OF A CONTINENTAL LOTTERY TICKET 

have been prevented. But the wisdom of Pitt found less 
favour in Parliament than the dense stupidity of Lord Shef- 
field, who thought that to admit Americans to the carrying 
trade would undermine the naval power of Great Britain. 
Pitt's measure was defeated, and the regulation of commerce 
with America was left to the king in council. Orders were 
forthwith passed as if upon the theory that America poor 
would be a better customer than America rich. 

The carrying trade to the West Indies had been one of 
the most important branches of American industry. The 
men of New England were famous for seamanship, and 
better and cheaper ships could be built in the seaports of 



142 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 



Massachusetts than anywhere in Great Britain. An oak 
, .,, vessel could be built at Gloucester or Salem for 

Shipbuild- 

ing in New twcnty-four dollars per ton ; a ship of live-oak or 
"^^" American cedar cost not more than thirty-eight 
dollars per ton. On the other hand, fir vessels built on the 
Baltic cost thirty-five dollars per ton, and nowhere in Eng- 
land, PVance, or Holland could a ship be made of oak for 
less than fifty dollars per ton. Often the cost was as high 
as sixty dollars. It was not strange, therefore, that before 
the war more than one third of the tonnage afloat under the 
British flag was launched from American dock-yards. The 
war had violently deprived England of this enormous advan- 
tage, and now she sought to make the privation perpetual, in 
the delusive hope of confining British trade to British keels, 
and in the belief that it was the height of wisdom to impov- 
erish the nation which she regarded as her best customer. 
In July, 1783, an order in council proclaimed that hence- 
forth all trade between the United States and the British 
West Indies must be carried on in British-built ships, owned 
and navigated by British subjects. A serious blow was thus 
dealt not only at American shipping, but also at the inter- 
change of commodities between the states and the islands, 
which was greatly hampered by this restriction. During the 
British whole of the eighteenth century the West India 
acts^and°'^ sugar trade with the North American colonies and 
orders in with Great Britain had been of immense value to all 

council . 1 11 1 1 1 -11 

directed partics, and all had been seriously damaged by the 
American Curtailment of it due to the war. Now that the 
commerce artificial State of things created by the war was to 
be perpetuated by legislation, the prospect of repairing the 
loss seemed indefinitely postponed. Moreover, even in trad- 
ing directly with Great Britain, American ships were only 
allowed to bring in articles produced in the particular states 
of which their owners were citizens, — an enactment which 
seemed to add insult to injury, inasmuch as it directed espe- 
cial attention to the want of union among the thirteen 
states. Great indignation was aroused in America, and re- 



1785 



DRIFTINC; TOWARD ANARCHY 



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INDEPENDENCE HALL AND NEW THEATRE, PHILADELPHIA, 17S5 



prisals were talked of, but efforts were first made to obtain 
a commercial treaty. 

In 1785 Franklin returned from France, and Jefferson 
was sent as minister in his stead, while John Adams became 
the first representative of the United States at the British 
court. Adams was at first very courteously received by 
George III., and presently set to work to convince Lord 
Carmarthen, the foreign secretary, of the desirableness of 
unrestricted intercourse between the two countries. But 
popular opinion in England was obstinately set 
against him. But for the Navigation Act and the 
orders in council, it was said, all ships would by 
and by come to be built in America, and every 
time a frigate was wanted for the navy the Lords 
of Admiralty would have to send over to Boston or Phila- 
delphia and order one. Rather than do such a thing as 
this, it was thought that the British navy should content 
itself with vessels of inferior workmanship and higher cost. 



John 
Adams 
tries in vain 
to negotiate 
a commer- 
cial treaty 



144 'i^HE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

built in British dock-yards. Thirty years after, England 
gathered an unexpected fruit of this narrow policy, when, 
to her intense bewilderment, she saw frigate after frigate 
outsailed and defeated in single combat with American an- 
tagonists. Owing to her exclusive measures, the rapid 
improvement in American shipbuilding had gone on quite 
beyond her ken, until she was thus rudely awakened to it. 
With similar short-sighted jealousy, it was argued that the 
American share in the whale-fishery and in the Newfound- 
land fishery should be curtailed as much as possible. Sper- 
maceti oil was much needed in England : complaints were 
rife of robbery and murder in the dimly lighted streets of 
London and other great cities. But it was thought that if 
American ships could carry oil to England and salt fish to 
Jamaica, the supply of seamen for the British navy would 
be diminished ; and accordingly such privileges must not 
be granted the Americans unless valuable privileges could 
be granted in return. 'But the government of the United 
States could grant no privileges because it could impose no 
restrictions. British manufactured goods were needed in 
America, and Congress, which could levy no duties, had 
no power to keep them out. British merchants and manu- 
facturers, it was argued, already enjoyed all needful privi- 
leges in American ports, and accordingly they asked no 
favours and granted none. 

Such were the arguments to which Adams was obliged to 
listen. The popular feeling was so strong that Pitt could 
not have stemmed it if he would. It was in vain that Adams 
threatened reprisals, and urged that the British measures 
would defeat their own purpose. " The end of the Naviga- 
tion Act," said he, " as expressed in its own preamble, is to 
confine the commerce of the colonies to the mother country; 
but now we are become independent states, instead of con- 
fining our trade to Great Britain, it will drive it to other 
countries : " and he suggested that the Americans might 
make a navigation act in their turn, admitting to American 
ports none but American-built ships, owned and commanded 



1785 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 



145 




VIEW FROM BATTERY, NEW VuUK 



by Americans. But under the articles of confederation such 
a threat was idle, and the British government knew it to be 
so. Thirteen separate state governments could never be 
made to adopt any such measure in concert. The weakness 
of Congress had been fatally revealed in its inability to 
protect the loyalists or to enforce the payment of debts, 
and in its failure to raise a revenue for meeting its current 
expenses. A government thus slighted at home was natu- 
rally despised abroad. Great Britain neglected to send a 
minister to Philadelphia, and while Adams was treated 
politely, his arguments were unheeded. Whether in this 
behaviour Pitt's government was influenced or not by politi- 
cal as well as economical reasons, it was certain that a 
political purpose was entertained by the king and approved 
by many people. There was an intention of humiliating 
the Americans, and it was commonly said that under a suffi- 
cient weight of commercial distress the states would break 
up their feeble union and come straggling back, one after 
another, to their old allegiance. The fiery spirit of Adams 
could ill brook this contemptuous treatment of the nation 



146 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

which he represented. Though he favoured very liberal 
commercial relations with the whole world, he could see no 
escape from the present difficulties save in systematic re- 
taliation. " I should be sorry," he said, "to adopt a monop- 
oly, but, driven to the necessity of it, I would not do things 
by halves. ... If monopolies and exclusions are the only 
arms of defence against monopolies and exclusions, I would 
venture upon them without fear of offending Dean Tucker 
or the ghost of Dr. Quesnay." That is to say, certain com- 
mercial privileges must be withheld from Great Britain, in 
order to be offered to her in return for reciprocal privileges. 
It was a miserable policy to be forced to adopt, for such 
restrictions upon trade inevitably cut both ways. Like the 
non-importation agreement of i ^68 and the embargo of 1 808, 
such a policy was open to the objections familiarly urged 
against biting off one's own nose. It was injuring one's self 
in the hope of injuring somebody else. It was perpetuating 
in time of peace the obstacles to commerce generated by a 
state of war. In a certain sense, it was keeping up warfare 
by commercial instead of military methods, and there was 
danger that it might lead to a renewal of armed conflict. 
Nevertheless, the conduct of the British government seemed 
to Adams to leave no other course open. But such " means 
of preserving ourselves," he said, " can never be secured until 
Congress shall be made supreme in foreign commerce." 

It was obvious enough that the separate action of the 
states upon such a question was only adding to the general 
Reprisal Uncertainty and confusion. In 1785 New York 
impossi- laid a double duty on all goods whatever imported 
states im- in British ships. In the same year Pennsylvania 
flicdng" passed the first of the infamous series of American 
duties tariff acts, designed to tax the whole community 

for the benefit of a few greedy manufacturers. Massachu- 
setts sought to establish committees of correspondence for 
the purpose of entering into a new non-importation agree- 
ment, and its legislature resolved that " the present powers 
of the Congress of the United States, as contained in the 



1785 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 



147 



articles of confederation, are not fully adequate to the great 
purposes they were originally designed to effect." The 
Massachusetts delegates in Congress — Gerry, Holton, and 
King — were instructed to recommend a general convention 
of the states for the purpose of revising and amending the 
articles of confederation ; but the delegates refused to com- 
ply with their instructions, and set forth their reasons in a 
paper which was approved by Samuel Adams, and caused 




ROOM IN FRAUNCES'S TAVERN 



the legislature to reconsider its action. It was feared that 
a call for a convention might seem too much like an open 
expression of a want of confidence in Congress, and might 
thereby weaken it still further without accomplishing any 
good result. For the present, as a temporary expedient, 
Massachusetts took counsel with New Hampshire, and the 
two states passed navigation acts, prohibiting British ships 
from carrying goods out of their harbours, and imposing a 
fourfold duty upon all such goods as they should bring in. 
A discriminating tonnage duty was also laid upon all foreign 
vessels. Rhode Island soon after adopted similar measures. 
In Congress a scheme for a uniform navigation act, to be 
concurred in and passed by all the thirteen states, was sug- 
gested by one of the Maryland delegates ; but it was opposed 
by Richard Henry Lee and most of the delegates from the 
far south. The southern states, having no ships or seamen 



( 



148 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

of their own, feared that the exclusion of British competi- 
tion might enable northern ship-owners to charge exorbitant 
rates for carrying their rice and tobacco, thus subjecting 
them to a ruinous monopoly ; but the gallant Moultrie, then 
governor of South Carolina, taking a broader view of the 
case, wrote to Bowdoin, governor of Massachusetts, assert- 
ing the paramount need of harmonious and united action. 
In the Virginia assembly, a hot - headed member. Rev, 
Charles Thruston, known as " the warrior parson," declared 
himself in doubt " whether it would not be better to encour- 
age the British rather than the eastern marine ; " but the 
remark was greeted with hisses and groans. Amid such 
mutual jealousies and misgivings, during the year 1785 acts 
were passed by ten states granting to Congress the power 
of regulating commerce for the ensuing thirteen years. 
The three states which refrained from acting were Georgia, 
South Carolina, and Delaware. The acts of the other ten 
were, as might have been expected, a jumble of incongrui- 
ties. North Carolina granted all the power that was asked, 
but stipulated that when all the states should have done 
likewise their acts should be summed up in a new article of 
confederation. Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maryland 
had fixed the date at which the grant was to take effect, 
while Rhode Island provided that it should not expire 
until after the lapse of twenty-five years. The grant by 
New Hampshire allowed the power to be used only in one 
specified way, — by restricting the duties imposable by the 
several states. The grants of Massachusetts, New York, 
New Jersey, and Virginia were not to take effect until all 
the others should go into operation. The only thing which 
Congress could do with these acts was to refer them back to 
the several legislatures, with a polite request to try to reduce 
them to something like uniformity. 

Meanwhile, the different states, with their different tariff 
and tonnage acts, began to make commercial war upon 
one another. No sooner had the other three New England 
states virtually closed their ports to British shipping than 



1785 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 



149 



Connecticut threw hers wide open, an act which she fol- 
lowed up by laying duties upon imports from commercial 
Massachusetts. Pennsylvania discriminated against differenT^" 
Delaware, and New Jersey, pillaged at once by both ^^^^^^ 
her greater neighbours, was compared to a cask tapped at 
both ends. The conduct of New York became especially 




^^ (o^/^^^yt^^^ 



selfish and blameworthy. That rapid growth which was so 
soon to carry the city and the state to a position of primacy 
in the Union had already begun. After the departure of 
the British the revival of business went on with leaps and 
bounds. The feeling of local patriotism waxed strong, and 
in no one was it more fully manifested than in George Clin- 
ton, the Revolutionary general, whom the people elected 
governor for six successive terms. He was a kinsman of 
Sir Henry Clinton, the British general ; both were descended 
from Earls of Lincoln. By dint of shrewdness and untiring 



I50 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

push, George Clinton had come to be for the moment the 
most powerful man in the state of New York. He had 
come to look upon the state almost as if it were his own 
private manor, and his life was devoted to furthering its 
interests as he understood them. It was his first article 
of faith that New York must be the greatest state in the 
Union. But his conceptions of statesmanship were ex- 
tremely narrow. In his mind, the welfare of New York 
meant the pulling down and thrusting aside of all her neigh- 
bours and rivals. He was the vigorous and steadfast 
advocate of every illiberal and exclusive measure, and the 
most uncompromising enemy to a closer union of the states. 
His great popular strength and the commercial importance 
of the community in which he held sway made him at this 
time the most dangerous man in America. The political 
victories presently to be won by Hamilton, Schuyler, and 
Livingston, without which our grand and pacific federal 
union could not have been brought into being, were victories 
won by most desperate fighting against the dogged opposi- 
tion of Clinton. Under his guidance, the history of New 
York, during the five years following the peace of 1783, was 
a shameful story of greedy monopoly and sectional hate. 
Of all the thirteen states, none behaved worse except Rhode 
Island. 

A single instance, which occurred early in 1787, may 
serve as an illustration. The city of New York, with its 
population of 30,000 souls, had long been supplied with fire- 
wood from Connecticut, and with butter and cheese, 
chickens and garden vegetables, from the thrifty farms of 
New Jersey. This trade, it was observed, carried thousands 
of dollars out of the city and into the pockets of detested 
Yankees and despised Jerseymen. It was ruinous to 
domestic industry, said the men of New York. It must be 
stopped by those effective remedies of the Sangrado school 
of economic doctors, a navigation act and a protective tariff. 
Acts were accordingly passed, obliging every Yankee sloop 
which came down through Hell Gate, and every Jersey 



152 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

market boat which was rowed across from Pauhis Hook to 
Cortlandt Street, to pay entrance fees and obtain clearances 
at the custom-house, just as was done by ships from London 
or Hamburg ; and not a cart-load of Connecticut firewood 
could be delivered at the back-door of a country-house in 
Beekman Street until it should have paid a heavy duty. 
Great and just was the wrath of the farmers and lumbermen. 
The New Jersey legislature made up its mind to retaliate. 
The city of New York had lately bought a small patch of 
ground on Sandy Hook, and had built a light-house there. 
This light-house was the one weak spot in the heel of 
Achilles where a hostile arrow could strike, and New Jersey 
gave vent to her indignation by laying a tax of ^i,8oo a year 
on it. Connecticut was equally prompt. At a great meet- 
ing of business men, held at New London, it was unani- 
mously agreed to suspend all commercial intercourse with 
New York. Every merchant signed an agreement, under 
penalty of ^250 for the first offence, not to send any goods 
whatever into the hated state for a period of twelve months. 
By such retaliatory measures, it was hoped that New York 
might be compelled to rescind her odious enactment. But 
such meetings and such resolves bore an ominous likeness 
to the meetings and resolves which in the years before 1775 
had heralded a state of war ; and but for the good work 
done by the federal convention another five years would 
scarcely have elapsed before shots would have been fired 
and seeds of perennial hatred sown on the shores that look 
toward Manhattan Island. 

To these commercial disputes there were added disputes 
about territory. The chronic quarrel between Connecticut 
and Pennsylvania over the valley of Wyoming was decided 
Disputes '^^ th^ autumn of 1782 by a special federal court, 
about terri- appointed in accordance with the articles of con- 

tory ; dis- -^ ^ 

asters in federation. The prize was adjudged to Pennsylva- 
Wyoming° nia, and the government of Connecticut submitted 
^'^^'^ as gracefully as possible. But new troubles were 

in store for the inhabitants of that beautiful region. The 




CONNECTICUT SETTXEMHENTS 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



SCALE OF MILES. 



154 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

traces of the massacre of 1 778 had disappeared, the houses 
had been rebuilt, new settlers had come in, and the pretty 
villages had taken on their old look of contentment and 
thrift, when in the spring of 1784 there came an accumula- 
tion of disasters. During a very cold winter great quantities 
of snow had fallen, and lay piled in huge masses on the 
mountain sides, until in March a sudden thaw set in. The 
Susquehanna rose, and overflowed the valley, and great 
blocks of ice drifted here and there, carrying death and 
destruction with them. Houses, barns, and fences were 
swept away, the cattle were drowned, the fruit trees broken 
down, the stores of food destroyed, and over the whole 
valley there lay a stratum of gravel and pebbles. The 
people were starving with cold and hunger, and President 
Dickinson urged the legislature to send prompt relief to the 
sufferers. But the hearts of the members were as flint, and 
their talk was incredibly wicked. Not a penny would they 
give to help the accursed Yankees. It served them right. 
If they had stayed in Connecticut, where they belonged, 
they would have kept out of harm's way. And with a 
blasphemy thinly veiled in phrases of pious unction, the 
desolation of the valley was said to have been contrived 
by the Deity with the express object of punishing these 
trespassers. But the cruelty of the Pennsylvania legislature 
was not confined to words. A scheme was devised for 
driving out the settlers and partitioning their lands among a 
company of speculators. A force of militia was sent to Wyo- 
ming, commanded by a truculent creature named Patterson. 
The ostensible purpose was to assist in restoring order in 
the valley, but the behaviour of the soldiers was such as 
would have disgraced a horde of barbarians. They stole 
what they could find, dealt out blows to the men and insults 
to the women, until their violence was met with violence in 
return. Then Patterson sent a letter to President Dickin- 
son, accusing the farmers of sedition, and hinting that 
extreme measures were necessary. Having thus, as he 
thought, prepared the way, he attacked the settlement. 



1784 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 



155 



turned some five hundred people out-of-doors, and burned 
their houses to the ground. The wretched victims, many of 
them tender women, or infirm old men, or little children, 
were driven into the wilderness at the point of the bayonet, 
and told to find their way to Connecticut without further 
delay. Heartrending scenes ensued. Many died of exhaus- 
tion, or furnished food for wolves. But this was more than 
the Pennsylvania legislature had intended. Patterson's zeal 



- ^Xj 




^yr^/^y^l. 



had carried him too far. He was recalled, and the sheriff 
of Northumberland County was sent, with a posse of men, 
to protect the settlers. Patterson disobeyed, however, and 
withdrawing his men to a fortified lair in the mountains, 
kept up a guerilla warfare. All the Connecticut men in the 
neighbouring country flew to arms. Men were killed on 
both sides, and presently Patterson was besieged. A regi- 



156 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

ment of soldiers was then sent from Philadelphia, under 
Colonel Armstrong, who had formerly been on Gates's staff, 
the author of the incendiary Newburgh address. On arriv- 
ing in the valley, Armstrong held a parley with the Con- 
necticut men, and persuaded them to lay down their arms ; 
assuring them on his honour that they should meet with 
no ill treatment, and that their enemy, Patterson, should 
be disarmed also. Having thus fallen into this soldier's 
clutches, they were forthwith treated as prisoners. Seventy- 
six of them were handcuffed and sent under guard, some 
to Easton and some to Northumberland, where they were 
thrown into jail.^ 

Great was the indignation in New England when these 
deeds were heard of. The matter had become very serious. 
A war between Connecticut and Pennsylvania might easily 
grow out of it. But the danger was averted through a 
singular feature in the Pennsylvania constitution. In order 
to hold its legislature in check, Pennsylvania had a council 
of censors, which was assembled once in seven years in 
order to inquire whether the state had been properly gov- 
erned during the interval. Soon after the troubles in 
Wyoming the regular meeting of the censors was held, and 
the conduct of Armstrong and Patterson was unreservedly 
condemned. A hot controversy ensued between the legisla- 
ture and the censors, and as the people set great store by 
the latter peculiar institution, public sympathy was gradually 
awakened for the sufferers. The wickedness of the affair 
began to dawn upon people's minds, and they were ashamed 
of what had been done. Patterson and Armstrong were 
frowned down, the legislature disavowed their acts, and it 
was ordered that full reparation should be made to the 
persecuted settlers of Wyoming. 

In the Green Mountains and on the upper waters of the 

^ See Chapman's History of Wyoming^ Wilkes-Barrd, 1830; Miner's 
History of IVyoffiittg, Philadelphia, 1845 ; Stone's Poetry and Histoty 
of Wyoming^ New York, 1844; Hoyt's Seventee7i Towns/tips in the 
County of Luzerne, Harrisburg, 1879. 



1777-84 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 157 

Connecticut there had been trouble for many years. In the 
course of the Revokitionary War, the fierce dispute between 
New York and New Hampshire for the possession of the 
Green Mountains came in from time to time to influence 
most curiously the course of events. It was closely con- 
nected with the intrigues against General Schuyler, and thus 
more remotely with the Conway cabal and the treason of 
Arnold. About the time of Burgoyne's invasion the asso- 
ciation of Green Mountain Boys endeavoured to cut the 
Gordian knot by declaring Vermont an independent state, 
and applying to the Continental Congress for ad- Troubles 
mission into the Union. The New York delegates '" ^^^ 

Green 

m Congress succeeded in defeating this scheme, Mountains, 
but the Vermont people went on and framed their ^^^^~ "^ 
constitution. Thomas Chittenden, a man of little education 
but very considerable ability, a farmer and innkeeper, ^ like 
Israel Putnam, was chosen governor, and held that position 
for many years. New Hampshire thus far had not actively 
opposed these measures, but fresh grounds of quarrel were 
soon at hand. Several towns on the east bank of the Con- 
necticut River wished to escape from the jurisdiction of 
New Hampshire. They preferred to belong to Vermont, 
because it was not within the Union, and accordingly not 
liable to requisitions of taxes from the Continental Con- 
gress. It was conveniently remembered that by the original 
grant, in the reign of Charles II., New Hampshire extended 
only sixty miles from the coast. Vermont was at first 
inclined to assent, but finding the scheme unpopular in Con- 
gress, and not wishing to offend that body, she changed her 
mind. The towns on both banks of the river then tried to 
organize themselves into a middle state, — a sort of Lotha- 
ringia on the banks of this New World Rhine, — to be 
called New Connecticut. By this time New Hampshire 

1 I have noticed that to readers unfamiliar with the early history of 
New England, the mention of these occupations is misleading. Both 
Putnam and Chittenden were gentlemen of eminently respectable an- 
cestry. 



158 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

was aroused, and she called attention to the fact that she 
still believed herself entitled to dominion over the whole of 
Vermont. Massachusetts now began to suspect that the 
upshot of the matter would be the partition of the whole 
disputed territory between New Hampshire and New York, 
and, ransacking her ancient grants and charters, she decided 
to set up a claim on her own part to the southernmost towns 
in Vermont. Thus goaded on all sides, Vermont adopted 
an aggressive policy. She not only annexed the towns east 
of the Connecticut River, but also asserted sovereignty over 
the towns in New York as far as the Hudson. New York 
sent troops to the threatened frontier, New Hampshire pre- 
pared to do likewise, and for a moment war seemed inevita- 
ble. But here, as in so many other instances, Washington 
appeared as peacemaker, and prevailed upon Governor Chit- 
tenden to use his influence in getting the dangerous claims 
withdrawn.^ After the spring of 1784 the outlook was less 
stormy in the Green Mountains. The conflicting claims 
were allowed to lie dormant, but the possibilities of mischief 
remained, and the Vermont question was not finally settled 
until after the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Mean- 
while, on the debatable frontier between Vermont and New 
York the embers of hatred smouldered. Barns and houses 
were set on fire, and belated wayfarers were found mysteri- 
ously murdered in the depths of the forest. ' 

Incidents like these of Wyoming and Vermont seem 
trivial, perhaps, when contrasted with the lurid tales of 
border warfare in older times between half-civilized peoples 
of mediaeval Europe, as we read them in the pages of Frois- 
sart and Sir Walter Scott. But their historic lesson is none 
the less clear. Though they lift the curtain but a little way, 
they show us a glimpse of the untold dangers and horrors 
from which the adoption of our Federal Constitution has so 

^ The story of the Vermont difficulties has been well summed up by 
Hildreth, Hisfoiy of the ignited States, vol. iii. pp. 407-410. See, also, 
Benton, The Vennotit Settlers and the New York Land Speculators, 
Minneapolis, 1894. 



1784 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 



159 



thoroughly freed us that we can only with some effort realize 
how narrowly we have escaped them. It is fit that they 
should be borne in mind, that we may duly appreciate the 
significance of the reign of law and order which has been 
established on this continent during the greater part of a 
century. When reported in Europe, such incidents were 





held to confirm the opinion that the American confederacy 
was going to pieces. With quarrels about trade and quarrels 
about boundaries, we seemed to be treading the old-fashioned 
paths of anarchy, even as they had been trodden in other 
ages and other parts of the world. It was natural that 
people in Europe should think so, because there was no his- 
toric precedent to help "them in forming a different opinion. 
No one could possibly foresee that within five years a num- 
ber of gentlemen at Philadelphia, containing among them- 
selves an amount of political sagacity such as has seldom 



i6o THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

been brought together within the walls of a single room, 
would amicably discuss the situation and agree upon a new 
system of government whereby the dangers might be once 
for all averted. Still less could any one foresee that these 
gentlemen would not only agree upon a scheme among them- 
selves, but would actually succeed, without serious civil 
dissension, in making the people of thirteen states adopt, 
defend, and cherish it. History afforded no example of so 
large an act of constructive statesmanship. It was, more- 
over, a strange and apparently fortuitous combination of cir- 
cumstances that were now preparing the way for it and 
making its accomplishment possible. No one could forecast 
the future. When our ministers and agents in Europe raised 
the question as to making commercial treaties, they were 
One nation <^isdainfully askcd whether European powers were 
or thir- expcctcd to deal with thirteen governments or with 

teen ? 

one. If it was answered that the United States 
constituted a single government so far as their relations with 
foreign powers were concerned, then we were forthwith 
twitted with our failure to keep our engagements with Eng- 
land with regard to the loyalists and the collection of private 
debts. Yes, we see, said the European diplomats ; the 
United States are one nation to-day and thirteen to-morrow, 
according as may seem to subserve their selfish interests. 
Jefferson, at Paris, was told again and again that it was use- 
less for the French government to enter into any agreement 
with the United States, as there was no certainty that it 
would be fulfilled on our part ; and the same things were 
said all over Europe. Toward the close of the war most of 
the European nations had seemed ready to enter into com- 
mercial arrangements with the United States, but all save 
Holland speedily lost interest in the subject. John Adams 
had succeeded in making a treaty with Holland in 1782. 
Frederick the Great treated us more civilly than other sov- 
ereigns. One of the last acts of his life was to conclude a 
treaty for ten years with the United States ; asserting the 
principle that free ships make free goods, taking arms and 



1784 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 161 

military stores out of the class of contraband, agreeing to 
refrain from privateering even in case of war between the 
two countries, and in other respects showing a liberal and 
enlightened spirit. 

This treaty was concluded in 1786. It scarcely touched 
the subject of international trade in time of peace, but it 
was valuable as regarded the matters it covered, and in the 
midst of the general failure of American diplomacy in Eu- 
rope it fell pleasantly upon our ears. Our diplomacy had 
failed because our weakness had been proclaimed to the 
world. We were bullied by England, insulted by France 
and Spain, and looked askance at in Holland. The humili- 
ating position in which our ministers were placed by the 
beggarly poverty of Congress was something almost beyond 
credence. It was by no means unusual for the superin- 
tendent of finance, when hard pushed for money, to draw 
upon our foreign ministers, and then sell the drafts for cash. 
This was not only not unusual ; it was an established cus- 
tom. It was done again and again, when there was not the 
smallest ground for supposing that the minister upon whom 
the draft was made would have any funds wherewith to meet 
it. He must go and beg the money. That was part of 
his duty as envoy, — to solicit loans without security for a 
government that could not raise enough money by 
taxation to defray its current expenses. It was American 
sickening work. Just before John Adams had j^in ' 
been appointed minister to England, and while he ^ggiJf^in 
was visiting in London, he suddenly learned that Holland, 
drafts upon him had been presented to his bankers 
in Amsterdam to the amount of more than a million florins. 
Less than half a million florins were on hand to meet these 
demands, and unless something were done at once the 
greater part of this paper would go back to America pro- 
tested. Adams lost not a moment in starting for Holland. 
In these modern days of precision in travel, when we can 
translate space into time, the distance between London and 
Amsterdam is eleven hours. It was accomplished by Adams, 



\ 



l62 THE CRITICAL TERIOD chap, iv 

after innumerable delays and vexations and no little danger, 
in three weeks. The bankers had contrived, by ingenious 
excuses, to keep the drafts from going to protest until the 
minister's arrival, but the g-azettes were full of the troubles 
of Congress and the bickerings of the states, and everybody 
\\-as suspicious, Adams applied in vain to the regency of 
Amsterdam. The promise of the American government 
was not reg~arded as valid security for a sum equivalent to 
about three hundred thousand dollars. The members of 
the regency were polite, but inexorable. They could not 
make a loan on such terms ; it was unbusinesslike and con- 
trary to precedent. Finding them immovable, Adams was 
forced to apply to professional usurers and Jew brokers, 
from whom, after three weeks of perplexity and humiliation, 
he obtained a loan at exorbitant interest, and succeeded in 
meeting the drafts. It was only too plain, as he mournfully 
confessed, that American credit \N-as dead.^ Such were the 
trials of our American ministers in Europe in the dark days 
of the League of Friendship. It was not a solitary, but a 
t\-pical, instance. John Jay's experience at the unfriendly 
court of Spain ^^■as perhaps even more trying. 

European governments might treat us with cold disdain, 
and European bankers might pronounce our securities 
worthless, but there ^^•as one quarter of the world from which 
even worse measure was meted out to us. Of all the bar- 
barous communities with which the civilized world has had 
to deal in modern times, perhaps none have made so much 
trouble as the Mussulman states on the southern shore of 

^ The stof}- is told in John Adams's J/Vrvcj. vol. \-iii. pp. 153-191. 
In a letter c;Uled forth by the affair. Franklin thus hits the nail on the 
head : '• I hope these mischievous events will at length convince our 
people of the truth of what I long since wrote to them, that t/iefouHJa- 
tiifH ofcretiit aifroad must be laid at horm. When the States have not 
faith enough in a Congress of their own choosing to trust it with money 
for the payment of their common debt, how can they expect that that 
Congress should meet with credit when it wants to borrow more money 
for their use from strangers." Franklin to John Adams., Passy, 5 
Feb., 1784- 



'7 ^'4 



\)\'\\li:i(, iOWAKJj ANARCHY 



163 



the Me^literranean, After the breaking up of the great 
Moorish kingdr;m« of the Middle Age«, thi» region had fallen 
under the nominal control of the Turkish sultans as lords 
paramount of the orthodox Mohammedan world. Its miser- 




JOHN A/MMS 



able populations became the prey of banditti. Swarms of 
half-savage chieftains settled down upon the land The Bar- 
like IfKjusts, and out of such a pandemonium of •^•"'y p""^*^-* 
rf>bl)ery and murder as has scarcely been equalled in historic 
times the pirate states of Morocco and Algiers, Tunis and 
Tripoli, gradually emerged. Of these communities history 
has not one good word to say. In these fair lands, once 
illustrious for the genius and virtues of a Hannibal and the 
profound philosophy of St. Augustine, there grew up some 
ol \\n- most terrible despotisms ever known to the world. 
I'he things done daily by the robber sovereigns were such 
as to make a civilized imagination recoil with horror. One 



i64 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

of these cheerful creatures, who reigned at the beginning 
of the eighteenth century, and was called Muley Ismail, 
especially prided himself on his peculiar skill in mounting a 
horse. Resting his left hand upon the horse's neck, as he 
sprang into the saddle he simultaneously swung the sharp 
scimiter in his right hand so deftly as to cut off the head 
of the groom who held the bridle. ^ From his behaviour in 
these sportive moods one may judge what he was capable 
of on serious occasions. He was a fair sample of the Bar- 
bary monarchs. The foreign policy of these wretches was 
summed up in piracy and blackmail. Their corsairs swept 
the Mediterranean and ventured far out upon the ocean, cap- 
turing merchant vessels, and murdering or enslaving their 
crews. Of the rich booty, a fixed proportion was paid over 
to the robber sovereign, and the rest was divided among 
the gang. So lucrative was this business that it attracted 
hardy ruffians from all parts of Europe, and the misery 
they inflicted upon mankind during four centuries was be- 
yond calculation. One of their favourite practices was the 
kidnapping of eminent or wealthy persons, in the hope of 
extorting ransom. Cervantes and Vincent de Paul were 
among the celebrated men who thus tasted the horrors of 
Moorish slavery ; but it was a calamity that might fall to 
the lot of any man or woman, and it was but rarely that the 
victims ever regained their freedom. 

Against these pirates the governments of Europe con- 
tended in vain. Swift cruisers frequently captured their 
ships, and from the days of Joan of Arc down to the days of 
Napoleon their skeletons swung from long rows of gibbets 
on all the coasts of Europe, as a terror and a warning. But 
their losses were easily repaired, and sometimes they cruised 
in fleets of seventy or eighty sail, defying the navies of 
England and France. It was not until after England, in 
Nelson's time, had acquired supremacy in the Mediterra- 
nean that this dreadful scourge was destroyed. Americans, 

1 See Busnot, History of the Reign of Muley Ismail^ London, 171 5, 
P- 35- 



I 



HISTORY 

O F T H E 

Reign oiMuleylfmael, 

THE 

Prefent King of Morocco^ 

Fex,^ Tafilet^ Sous^ &c. 

Of the Revolt and Tragical End of feveral of 
his Sons, and of his Wives. 

Of the horrid Executions of many of his Offi- 
cers and Subje^s* 

Of his Genius, Policy, and Arbitrary Govern- 
ment. 

Of the cruel Perjecution of the Chriftian Slaves 
in his Dominions : With an Account of 
three Voyages to Miquen/z, zxvX'Ceuta^ in 
order to Ranfbm them. 

By F. Dominic K BusNOT, one of 

the Commiflaries for the Redemption ^ of 
Captives in the Dominions oi Morocco. 

Tranjlatedffrom thi Original 'French Motpy] fir fi 
Printed at Ko2Ln, this frefent TeoTy^ iji^.' 

LONDON: Printed for J,BELL,zt the Croft 
Keys and £Wie in CornlM-^ ajid ^. B 4 K F. it, at 
tlie Bla ck Boy in Pater'Nofier-Ro jr. 1715. 

FACSIMILE TITLE-PAGE OF THE HISTORY OF THE REUiN OF MULEY ISMAEL 



i66 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

however, have just ground for pride in recollecting that their 
government was foremost in chastising these pirates in their 
own harbours. The exploits of our little navy in the Medi- 
terranean at the beginning of the present century form an 
interesting episode in American history, but in the weak days 
of the Confederation our commerce was plundered 

American ... . 

citizens with impunity, and American citizens were seized 
1 nappe ^^^ ^^^^ .^^^ slavery in the markets of Algiers 

and Tripoli. One reason for the long survival of this 
villainy was the low state of humanity among European 
nations. An Englishman's sympathy was but feebly aroused 
by the plunder of Frenchmen, and the bigoted Spaniard 
looked on with approval so long as it was Protestants that 
were kidnapped and bastinadoed. In 1783 Lord Sheffield 
published a pamphlet on the commerce of the United States, 
in which he shamelessly declared that the Barbary pirates 
were really useful to the great maritime powers, because 
they tended to keep the weaker nations out of their share in 
the carrying trade. This, he thought, was a valuable offset 
to the Empress Catherine's device of the armed neutrality, 
whereby small nations were protected ; and on this wicked 
theory, as Franklin tells us, London merchants had been 
heard to say that " if there were no Algiers, it would be 
worth England's while to build one." It was largely because 
of such feelings that the great states of Europe so long 
persisted in the craven policy of paying blackmail to the 
robbers, instead of joining in a crusade and destroying them. 
In 1786 Congress felt it necessary to take measures for 
protecting the lives and liberties of American citizens. 
The person who was grotesquely called " Emperor " of 
Morocco at that time was different from most of his kind. 
He had a taste for reading, and had thus caught a glimmer- 
ing of the enlightened liberalism which French philosophers 
were preaching. He wished to be thought a benevolent 
despot, and with Morocco, accordingly. Congress succeeded 
in making a treaty. But nothing could be done with the 
other pirate states without paying blackmail. Few scenes 



1786 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 167 

in our history are more amusing, or more irritating, than 
the interview of John Adams with an envoy from TripoU 
in London. The oily-tongued barbarian, with his soft voice 
and his bland smile, asseverating that his only interest in 
life was to do good and make other people happy, stands out 
in fine contrast with the blunt, straightforward, and truthful 
New Englander ; and their conversation reminds one of the 
old story of Coeur-de-Lion with his curtal-axe and Saladin 
with the blade that cut the silken cushion. Adams felt 
sure that the fellow was either saint or devil, but Tripoli 
could not quite tell which. The envoy's love for ti^a'ckmln 
mankind was so great that he could not bear the ^^^^i- '786 
thought of hostility between the Americans and the Barbary 
States, and he suggested that everything might be happily 
arranged for a million dollars or so. Adams thought it 
better to fight than to pay tribute. It would be cheaper in 
the end, as well as more manly. At the same time, it was 
better economy to pay a million dollars at once than waste 
many times that sum in war risks and loss of trade. But 
Congress could do neither one thing nor the other. It was 
too poor to build a navy, and too poor to buy off the pirates ; 
and so for several years to come American ships were 
burned and American sailors enslaved with impunity. With 
the memory of such wrongs deeply graven in his heart, it 
was natural that John Adams, on becoming President of the 
United States, should bend his energies toward founding a 
strong American navy. 

A government touches the lowest point of ignominy when 
it confesses its inability to protect the lives and property 
of its citizens. A government which has come to coneress 
this has failed in discharging the primary function unable to 
of government, and forthwith ceases to have any American 
reason for existing. In March, i y^iG, Grayson 
wrote to Madison that several members of Congress thought 
seriously of recommending a general convention for remod- 
elling the government. " I have not made up my mind," 
says Grayson, " whether it would not be better to bear the 



i68 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

ills we have than fly to those we know not of. I am, how- 
ever, in no doubt about the weakness of the federal gov- 
ernment. If it remains much longer in its present state 
of imbecility, we shall be one of the most contemptible 
nations on the face of the earth." "It is clear to me as 




A, B, C," said Washington, " that an extension of federal 
powers would make us one of the most happy, wealthy, 
respectable, and powerful nations that ever inhabited the 
terrestrial globe. Without them we shall soon be every- 
thing which is the direct reverse. I predict the worst con- 
sequences from a half-starved, limping government, always 
moving upon crutches and tottering at every step." 
—- - There is no telling how long the wretched state of things 
which followed the Revolution might have continued, had 
not the crisis been precipitated by the wild attempts of the 
several states to remedy the distress of the people by 
Fin n i 1 legislation. That financial distress was widespread 
distress and dcep-seatcd was not to be denied. At the 
thrpoiiticd beginning of the war the amount of accumulated 
"'^'^ capital in the country had been very small. The 

great majority of the people did little more than get from 
the annual yield of their farms or plantations enough to 
meet the current expenses of the year. Outside of agricul- 
ture the chief resources were the carrying trade, the ex- 
change of commodities with England and the West Indies, 
and the cod and whale fisheries ; and in these occupations 
many people had grown rich. The war had destroyed all 
these sources of revenue. Imports and exports had alike 
been stopped, so that there was a distressing scarcity of 
some of the commonest household articles. The enemy's 




SPANISH DOLLAR 
$1.00 

FOREIGN COINS FORMERLY IN CIRCULATION IN THE UNITED STATES 



I70 THE CRITICAL PERIOD CHAP, iv 

navy had kept us from the fisheries. Before the war, the 
dock-yards of Nantucket were ringing with the busy sound 
of adze and hammer, rope-walks covered the island, and 
two hundred keels sailed yearly in quest of spermaceti. At 
the return of peace, the docks were silent and grass grew 
in the streets. The carrying trade and the fisheries began 
soon to revive, but it was some years before the old pro- 
sperity was restored. The war had also wrought serious 
damage to agriculture, and in some parts of the country the 
direct destruction of property by the enemy's troops had 
been very great. To all these causes of poverty there was 
added the hopeless confusion due to an inconvertible paper 
currency. The worst feature of this financial device is that 
it not only impoverishes people, but bemuddles their brains 
by creating a false and fleeting show of prosperity. By 
violently disturbing apparent values, it always brings on an 
era of wild speculation and extravagance in living, followed 
by sudden collapse and protracted suffering. In such crises 
the poorest people, those who earn their bread by the sweat 
of their brows and have no margin of accumulated capital, 
always suffer the most. Above all men, it is the labouring 
man who needs sound money and steady values. We have 
seen all these points amply illustrated since the War of 
Secession. After the War of Independence, when the mar- 
gin of accumulated capital was so much smaller, the misery 
was much greater. While the paper money lasted there was 
marked extravagance in living, and complaints were loud 
against the speculators, especially those who operated in 
bread-stuffs. Washington said he would like to hang them 
all on a gallows higher than that of Haman ; but they were, 
after all, but the inevitable products of this abnormal state of 
things, and the more guilty criminals were the demagogues 
who went about preaching the doctrine that the poor man 
needs cheap money. After the collapse of this continental 
currency in 1780, it seemed as if there were no money in 
the country, and at the peace the renewal of trade with 
England seemed at first to make matters worse. The brisk 



1786 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 



171 



importation of sorely needed manufactured goods, which 
then began, would naturally have been paid for in the south 
by indigo, rice, and tobacco, in the middle states by exports 
of wheat and furs, and in New England by the profits of the 
fisheries, the shipping, and the West India trade. But in 




the southern and middle states the necessary revival of 
agriculture could not be effected in a moment, and British 
legislation against American shipping and the West India 
trade fell with crippling force upon New England. Conse- 
quently, we had little else but specie with which to pay for 
imports, and the country was soon drained of what little 
specie there was. In the absence of a circulating medium 
there was a reversion to the practice of barter, and the 
revival of business was thus further impeded. Whiskey in 
North Carolina, tobacco in Virginia, did duty as measures 



172 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

of value ; and Isaiah Thomas, editor of the Worcester " Spy," 
announced that he would receive subscriptions for his paper 
in salt pork. 

It is worth while, in this connection, to observe what this 
specie was, the scarcity of which created so much embarrass- 
ment. Until 1785 no national coinage was established, and 
none was issued until 1793. English, French, Spanish, and 
German coins, of various and uncertain value, passed from 
state of the ^^nd to hand. Beside the ninepences and four- 
coinage pence-ha'-pennies, there were bits and half-bits, 
pistareens, picayunes, and fips. Of gold pieces there were 
the Johannes, or joe, the doubloon, the moidore, and pistole, 
with English and French guineas, carolins, ducats, and 
chequins. Of coppers there were English pence and half- 
pence and French sous ; and pennies were issued at local 
mints in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, 
and Pennsylvania. The English shilling had everywhere 
degenerated in value, but differently in different localities ; 
and among silver pieces the Spanish dollar, from Louisiana 
and Cuba, had begun to supersede it as a measure of value. 
In New England the shilling had sunk from nearly one 
fourth to one sixth of a dollar ; in New York to one eighth ; 
in North Carolina to one tenth. It was partly for this 
reason that in devising a national coinage the more uniform 
dollar was adopted as the unit. At the same time the decimal 
system of division was adopted instead of the cumbrous 
English system, and the result was our present admirably 
simple currency, which we owe to Gouverneur Morris, aided 
as to some points by Thomas Jefferson. During the period 
of the Confederation, the chaotic state of the currency was a 
serious obstacle to trade, and it afforded endless opportuni- 
ties for fraud and extortion. Clipping and counterfeiting 
were carried to such lengths that every moderately cautious 
person, in taking payment in hard cash, felt it necessary to 
keep a small pair of scales beside him and carefully weigh 
each coin, after narrowly scrutinizing its stamp and decipher- 
ing its legend. 




^■'fi*i^ ^ 



"...!&> 



u. 



lomass ptafccWcttvjit^ 



;*^_ Or, The ^onrftn- ' ' 

'i ' . ~ . "AnXaSCtjie Kt.'> M! MAX vs t.s r ;» iX-kK 



Vol XV,] T H I. R S O A »', J 


ISAIAH THOMAS, i 

i 

!?■■ - - 






FACSIMILE PAGE OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY 



174 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

In view of all these complicated impediments to business 
on the morrow of a long and costly war, it was not strange 
that the whole country was in some measure pauperized. 
Cost of the The cost of the war, estimated in cash, had been 
at'^MorHs about $ 1 70,000,000 — a huge sum if we consider 
fmm^n^ the circumstauces of the country at that time. 
services To meet this crushing indebtedness Mr. Hildreth 
reckons the total amount raised by the states, whether by 
means of repudiated paper or of taxes, down to 1784, as not 
more than ^30,000,000. No wonder if the issue of such 
a struggle seemed quite hopeless. In many parts of the 
country, by the year 1786, the payment of taxes had come 
to be regarded as an amiable eccentricity. At one moment, 
early in 1782, there was not a single dollar in the treasury. 
That the government had in any way been able to finish the 
war, after the downfall of its paper money, was due to the 
gigantic efforts of one great man, — Robert Morris of Penn- 
sylvania. This statesman was born in England, but he had 
come to Philadelphia in his boyhood, and had amassed a 
large fortune, which he devoted without stint to the service 
of his adopted country. Though opposed to the Declaration 
of Independence as rash and premature, he had, neverthe- 
less, signed his name to that document, and scarcely any 
one had contributed more to the success of the war.^ It 
was he who raised the money which enabled Washington 
to complete the great campaign of Trenton and Princeton. 
In 1 78 1 he was made superintendent of finance, and by dint 
of every imaginable device of hard-pressed ingenuity he 
contrived to support the brilliant work which began at the 
Cowpens and ended at Yorktown. He established the Bank 
of North America as an instrument by which government 
loans might be negotiated. Sometimes his methods were 
such as doctors call heroic, as when he made sudden drafts 

^ Probably the winning of independence was due more to Morris than 
to any other man except Washington. Copious data for studying his 
career are collected in Sumner's The Financier atid Finances of the 
American Revolution, New York, 189 [, 2 vols. 




'^f^^ 



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SPECIMEN OF CONTINENTAL CURRENCY 



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SPECIMEN OF CONTINENTAL CURRENCY 



1786 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 



177 



upon our ministers in Europe after the manner already de- 
scribed. In every dire emergency he was Washington's 
chief reliance. It was of ill omen for the fortunes of the 
weak and disorderly Confederation that in 1784, after three 
years of herculean struggle with 
impossibilities, this stout heart and 
sagacious head could no longer 
weather the storm. The task of 
creating wealth out of nothing 
had become too arduous and too 
thankless to be endured. Robert 
Morris resigned his place, and it 
was taken by a congressional com- 
mittee of finance, under whose 
management the disorders only 
hurried to a crisis. 

By 1786, under the universal de- 
pression and want of confidence, 
all trade had well-nigh stopped, 
and political quackery, with its 
cheap and dirty remedies, had full 
control of the field. In the very 
face of miseries so plainly traceable 

to the deadly paper currency, it may seem strange that 
people should now have begun to clamour for a renewal of 
the experiment which had worked so much evil. Yet so it 
was. As starving men are said to dream of dainty ban- 
quets, so now a craze for fictitious wealth in the The craze 
shape of paper money ran like an epidemic through mon^y^^'^ 
the country. There was a Barmecide feast of ^786 
economic vagaries ; only now it was the several states that 
sought to apply the remedy, each in its own way. And 
when we have threaded the maze of this rash legislation, we 
shall the better understand that clause in our federal con- 
stitution which forbids the making of laws impairing the 
obligation of contracts. The events of 1786 impressed 
upon men's minds more forcibly than ever the wretched and 




o 



SCALES FOR WEIGHING COINS 



178 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

disorderly condition of the country, and went far toward call- 
ing into existence the needful popular sentiment in favour of 
an overruling central government. 

The disorders assumed very different forms in the differ- 
ent states, and brought out a great diversity of opinion as to 
the causes of the distress and the efficacy of the proposed 
remedies. Only two states out of the thirteen — Connecti- 
cut and Delaware — escaped the infection, but, on the other 
hand, it was only in seven states that the paper money party 
prevailed in the legislatures. North Carolina issued a large 
amount of paper, and, in order to get it into circulation as 
quickly as possible, the state government proceeded to buy 
tobacco with it, paying double the specie value of the to- 
bacco. As a natural consequence, the paper dollar instantly 
fell to seventy cents, and went on declining. In South 
Agitation Carolina an issue was tried somewhat more cau- 
!md°mMdie tiously, but the planters soon refused to take the 
states paper at its face value. Coercive measures were 

then attempted. Planters and merchants were urged to 
sign a pledge not to discriminate between paper and gold, 
and if any one dared refuse the fanatics forthwith attempted 
to make it hot for him. A kind of " Kuklux " society was 
organized at Charleston, known as the " Hint Club." Its 
purpose was to hint to such people that they had better look 
out. If they did not mend their ways, it was unnecessary 
to inform them more explicitly what they might expect. 
Houses were combustible then as now, and the use of fire- 
arms was well understood. In Georgia the legislature itself 
attempted coercion. Paper money was made a legal tender 
in spite of strong opposition, and a law was passed prohibit- 
ing any planter or merchant from exporting any produce 
without taking affidavit that he had never refused to receive 
this scrip at its full face value. But somehow people found 
that the more it was sought to keep up the paper by dint of 
threats and forcing acts, the faster its value fell. Virginia 
had issued bills of credit during the campaign of 1781, but 
it was enacted at the same time that they should not be a 



I 

I 





KtZ'Cfse 
SPECIMEN OF MASSACHUSETTS CURRENCY 




Obverse 




Keverse 
SPFXIMEN OF CONNECTICUT CURRENCY 



1786 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY i8i 

legal tender after the next January. The influence of Wash- 
ington, Madison, and Mason was effectively brought to bear 
in favour of sound currency, and the people of Virginia were 
but slightly affected by the craze of 1786. In the autumn 
of that year a proposition from two counties for an issue of 
paper was defeated in the legislature by a vote of eighty-five 
to seventeen, and no more was heard of the matter. In 
Maryland, after a very obstinate fight, a rag money bill was 
carried in the house of representatives, but the senate threw 
it out ; and the measure was thus postponed until the dis- 
cussion over the federal constitution superseded it in popular 
interest. Pennsylvania had warily begun in May, 1785, to 
issue a million dollars in bills of credit, which were not made 
a legal tender for the payment of private debts. They were 
mainly loaned to farmers on mortgage, and were received by 
the state as an equivalent for specie in the payment of taxes. 
By August, 1786, even this carefully guarded paper had 
fallen some twelve cents below par, — not a bad showing 
for such a year as that. New York moved somewhat less 
cautiously. A million dollars were issued in bills of credit 
receivable for the custom-house duties, which were then 
paid into the state treasury ; and these bills were made a 
legal tender for all money received in lawsuits. At the 
same time the New Jersey legislature passed a bill for issu- 
ing half a million paper dollars, to be a legal tender in all 
business transactions. The bill was vetoed by the governor 
in council. The aged Governor Livingston was greatly re- 
spected by the people ; and so the mob at Elizabethtown, 
which had duly planted a stake and dragged his effigy up 
to it, refrained from inflicting the last indignities upon the 
image, and burned that of one of the members of the council 
instead. At the next session the governor yielded, and the 
rag money was issued. But an unforeseen difficulty arose. 
Most of the dealings of New Jersey people were in the cities 
of New York and Philadelphia, and in both cities the mer- 
chants refused their paper, so that it speedily became worth- 
less. 



i82 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

The business of exchange was thus fast getting into hope- 
less confusion. It has been said of Bradshaw's Railway- 
Guide, the indispensable companion of the traveller in Eng- 
land, that no man can study it for an hour without qualifying 
himself for a lunatic asylum. But Bradshaw is pellucid 
clearness compared with the American tables of exchange 
in 1786, with their medley of dollars and shillings, moidores, 
and pistareens. The addition of half a dozen different 
kinds of paper created such a labyrinth as no human intel- 
lect could explore. No wonder that men were counted wise 
who preferred to take whiskey and pork instead. Nobody 
who had a yard of cloth to sell could tell how much it was 
worth. But even worse than all this was the swift and 
certain renewal of bankruptcy which so many states were 
preparing for themselves. 

Nowhere did the warning come so quickly or so sharply as 
in New England. Connecticut, indeed, as already observed, 
came off scot-free. She had issued a little paper money 
soon after the battle of Lexington, but had stopped it about 
the time of the surrender of Burgoyne. In 1780 she had 
wisely and summarily adjusted all relations between debtor 
and creditor, and the crisis of 1786 found her people poor 
enough, no doubt, but able to wait for better times and 
indisposed to adopt violent remedies. It was far otherwise 
^. ^ in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. These were 

Distress 

in New preeminently the maritime states of the Union, 
and upon them the blows aimed by England at 
American commerce had fallen most severely. It was these 
two maritime states that suffered most from the cutting 
down of the carrying trade and the restriction of intercourse 
with the West Indies. These things worked injury to ship- 
building, to the exports of lumber and oil and salted fish, 
even to the manufacture of Medford rum. Nowhere had 
the normal machinery of business been thrown out of gear 
so extensively as in these two states, and in Rhode Island 
there was the added disturbance due to a prolonged occupa- 
tion by the enemy's troops. Nowhere, perhaps, was there a 




f¥m 







M.X)CC.LlrtTrj, X^W 



Reverse 
SPECIMEN OF NEW YORK CURRENCY 



':f^^^€y'^^'$'^f€'i'''!r'<r-^ 



r rA"" EI LI I. 1 ,uf. ciurcut 

^ la III Pr, ;n^'.'» iu tl is Lolcm, f- 1 

Do't-r> tr ij.j \ ait'C tr. 'itJ^ '»- 

}\L*llU ,'. o» iHc J iOV'.l ' '..1 








;l^t 



.i;£Ss. «&<&«'> 








SPECIMEN OF NEW YORK CURRENCY 



1786 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 185 

larger proportion of the population in debt, and in these 
preeminently commercial communities private debts were a 
heavier burden and involved more personal suffering than in 
the somewhat patriarchal system of life in Virginia or South 
Carolina. In the time of which we are now treating, impris- 
onment for debt was common. High-minded but unfortu- 
nate men were carried to jail, and herded with thieves and 
ruffians in loathsome dungeons, for the crime of owing a 
hundred dollars which they could not promptly pay. Under 
such circumstances, a commercial disturbance, involving 
widespread debt, entailed an amount of personal suffering 
and humiliation of which, in these kinder days, we can form 
no adequate conception. It tended to make the debtor an 
outlaw, ready to entertain schemes for the subversion of 
society. In the crisis of 1786, the agitation in Rhode 
Island and Massachusetts reached white heat, and things 
were done which alarmed the whole country. But the 
course of events was different in the two states. In Rhode 
Island the agitators obtained control of the government, and 
the result was a paroxysm of tyranny. In Massachusetts 
the agitators failed to secure control of the government, and 
the result was a paroxysm of rebellion. 

The debates over paper money in the Rhode Island legis- 
lature began in 1785, but the advocates of a sound currency 
were victorious. These men were roundly abused in the 
newspapers, and in the next spring election most of them 
lost their seats. The legislature of 1786 .showed an over- 
whelming majority in favour of paper money. The farmers 
from the inland towns were unanimous in supporting the 
measure. They could not see the difference between the 
state making a dollar out of paper and a dollar out of gold. 
The idea that the value did not lie in the government stamp 
they dismissed as an idle crotchet, a wire-drawn theory, 
worthy only of "literary fellows." What they could see 
was the glaring fact that they had no money, hard or soft ; 
and they wanted something that would satisfy their credit- 
ors and buy new gowns for their wives, whose raiment was 



i86 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

unquestionably the worse for wear. On the other hand, 
the merchants from seaports like Providence, Newport, and 
Bristol understood the difference between real money and 
the promissory notes of a bankrupt government, but they 
were in a hopeless minority. Half a million dollars were 
issued in scrip, to be loaned to the farmers on a mortgage 
of their real estate. No one could obtain the scrip without 
giving a mortgage for twice the amount, and it was thought 
that this security would make it as good as gold. But the 
depreciation began instantly. When the worthy farmers 
went to the store for dry goods or sugar, and found the 
prices rising with dreadful rapidity, they were at first aston- 
ished, and then enraged. The trouble, as they truly said, 

was with the wicked merchants, who would not 
money vie- take the paper dollars at their face value. These 
Rhode Is- """^^^ wcrc thus thwarting the government, and 
land; the must be puuishcd. An act was accordingly hur- 
Ye"mea- ried through the legislature, commanding every 

one to take paper as an equivalent for gold, under 
penalty of five hundred dollars fine and loss of the right of 
suffrage. The merchants in the cities thereupon shut up 
their shops. During the summer of 1786 all business was 
at a standstill in Newport and Providence, except in the bar- 
rooms. There and about the market-places men spent their 
time angrily discussing politics, and scarcely a day passed 
without street-fights, which at times grew into riots. In the 
country, too, no less than in the cities, the. goddess of dis- 
cord reigned. The farmers determined to starve the city 
people into submission, and they entered into an agreement 
not to send any produce into the cities until the merchants 
should open their shops and begin selling their goods for 
paper at its face value. Not wishing to lose their pigs and 
butter and grain, they tried to dispose of them in Boston 
and New York, and in the coast towns of Connecticut. But 
in all these places their proceedings had awakened such 
lively disgust that placards were posted in the taverns warn- 
ing purchasers against farm produce from Rhode Island. 




:-:^m 




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(''/■iv; 




Jieverse 
SPECIMEN OF PENNSYLVANIA CURRENCY 







r^^ r :r :iY do 

\ '. ■ S Bill 
^J I, enticle the 1 

a^V L A ^' , aeid ar ir..; > 




- ■) •■.-cev'-'e 



i/ 




SPECIMEN OF MARYLAND CURRENCY 



1786 DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 189 

Disappointed in these quarters, the farmers threw away their 
milk, used their corn for fuel, and let their apples rot on the 
ground, rather than supply the detested merchants. Food 
grew scarce in Providence and Newport, and in the latter 
city a mob of sailors attempted unsuccessfully to storm the 
provision stores. The farmers were threatened with armed 
violence. Town meetings were held all over the state, to 
discuss the situation, and how long they might have talked 
to no purpose none can say, when all at once the matter was 
brought into court. A cabinet-maker in Newport named 
Trevett went into a meat-market kept by one John Weeden, 
and selecting a joint of meat, offered paper in payment. 
Weeden refused to take the paper except at a heavy dis- 
count. Trevett went to bed supperless, and next morning 
informed against the obstinate butcher for disobedience to 
the forcing act. Should the court find him guilty, it would 
be a good speculation for Trevett, for half of the five hun- 
dred dollars fine was to go to the informer. Hard-money 
men feared lest the court might prove subservient to the 
legislature, since that body possessed the power of removing 
the five judges. The case was tried in September amid 
furious excitement. Huge crowds gathered about the court- 
house and far down the street, screaming and cheering like 
a crowd on the night of a presidential election. The judges 
were clear-headed men, not to be browbeaten. They de- 
clared the forcing act unconstitutional, and dismissed the 
complaint. Popular wrath then turned upon them. A spe- 
cial session of the legislature was convened, four of the 
judges were removed, and a new forcing act was prepared. 
This act provided that no man could vote at elections or hold 
any office without taking a test oath promising to receive 
paper money at par. But this was going too far. Many 
soft-money men were not wild enough to support such a 
measure ; among the farmers there were some who had 
grown tired of seeing their produce spoiled on their hands ; 
and many of the richest merchants had announced their 
intention of moving: out of the state. The new forcing act 



I90 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

accordingly failed to pass, and presently the old one was 
repealed. The paper dollar had been issued in May ; in 
November it passed for sixteen cents. 

These outrageous proceedings awakened disgust and 
alarm among sensible people everywhere, and Rhode Island 
was ruthlessly reviled and made fun of. One clause of the 
forcing act had provided that if a debtor should offer paper 
to his creditor and the creditor should refuse to take it at 
par, the debtor might carry his rag money to court and de- 
posit it with the judge; and the judge must thereupon 
issue a certificate discharging the debt. The form of cer- 
tificate began with the words " Know Ye," and forthwith 
the unhappy little state was nicknamed Rogues' Island, the 
home of Know Ye men and Know Ye measures. 

While scorn was thus poured out upon Rhode Island, 
much sympathy was felt for the government of Massachu- 
setts, which was called upon thus early to put down armed 
rebellion. The pressure of debt was keenly felt in the 
rural districts of Massachusetts. It is estimated that the 
private debts in the state amounted to some 

Rag money '■ 

defeated in ^7,000,000, and the State's arrears to the federal 

setts; the government amounted to some ^7,000,000 more. 

smTect\on Adding to thcse sums the arrears of bounties due 

Aug. 17S6- to the soldiers, and the annual cost of the state, 

Feb. 1787 ' 

county, and town governments, there was reached 
an aggregate equivalent to a tax of more than ^50 on every 
man, woman, and child in this population of 379,000 souls. 
Upon every head of a family the average burden was some 
$200 at a time when most farmers would have thought such 
a sum yearly a princely income. In those days of scarcity 
most of them did not set eyes on so much as ^50 in the 
course of a year, and happy was he who had tucked away 
two or three golden guineas or moidores in an old stocking, 
and sewed up the treasure in his straw mattress or hidden 
it behind the bricks of the chimney-piece. Under such cir- 
cumstances the payment of debts and taxes was out of the 
question ; and as the same state of things made creditors 



1786 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 



191 



clamorous and ugly, the courts were crowded with lawsuits. 
The lawyers usually contrived to get their money by exact- 
ing retainers in advance, and the practice of champerty was 
common, whereby the lawyer did his work in consideration 
of a percentage on the sum which was at last forcibly col- 
lected. Homesteads were sold for the payment of fore- 
closed mortgages, cattle were seized in distrainer, and the 



10 an whom u niav conc-rn '' 

IV WarwiCK, m ths County of Kent, on th^WJ 
Day of July, at my Dwelling-Houie ^t WarwkH 
lodged vuh me th. Sam of Eighty-niue Pm,ndii 
Four Shillings and Ei^Ht Pence, lawful Mone. 
be.ng m full.of a judgn.l-nt of Court, w U S' 
Kadand obt^ bed ag.inft the faid f^mc Arnod* 

/->, r>» * - ^-' J<i> at tne Inrenor Court of 

Coiiimoa Pleas, hdd it Prmlri^r,^, - Vv V 
lai> • Th-^r ^^. r • V ^^^^^'^'^nce m December 

fpeds .omphed ;vu:, the La^v refpcding the Paper- i 

Currency; and .hacthe {^id .indre^ Comftocic j 

hath beea ie^^Uy and duly notified thereof.-As 1 

Wuncis my Hand at\Vamic:k. the Bth of Auguit, i 

^1^^'- ^ i i I. I A M ■ G R E H K S , j . C. P]ea5. ^ 

. 1^ ' <^'''-'J^" :-f Rhode- li<n?td, bV. 

,rW^ ' To all whom it may cojicern. 
"pr NOW Y £, That Sanmel Bifrd, cl Exeter, 
1^ if. the County ol VVaihington, on the kXh'n 
i>ayct J-iy, at nty Dv.ciiiRg.Houftt at Nyrth- 
Kinj:;Ilov/t!, ]odged with Hit; the Sinn c■^' '"'"• ••'"■-.- 
two Pouiids Fi\ e Shillir;)rs and Five Pi-- 1 

lAonay, due- to Pacdou Tillin^haft, ..1 .. . , .. 
Greenv.ich, in the Cou»uy of Lent, Yeoaian, xvx 
lull of thr Principal and Intereft of a certain Moju 
gage Deed, payable the iotn Day of Marth ' 
1>S2 ; and that the faid ^Samuel BjficJ hath io all 
Rcipcds complied with the Law rtfpcCu^ 
Paper- C«J-reucy j and that M>r;ia:u p;;rcrn: 'P; 
haJl hath bevTi du!y,n&ti,4]. ' 
my Haad* ;» Nofih-iS;!?; 






FACSIMILE OF A " KNOW YE CERTIFICATE 



192 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

farmer himself was sent to jail. The smouldering fires of 
wrath thus kindled found expression in curses aimed at 
lawyers, judges, and merchants. The wicked merchants 
bought foreign goods and drained the state of specie to pay 
for them, while they drank Madeira wine and dressed their 
wives in fine velvets and laces. So said the farmers ; and 
city ladies, far kinder than these railers deemed them, 
formed clubs, of which the members pledged themselves to 
wear homespun, — a poor palliative for the deep-seated ills 
of the time. In such mood were many of the villagers when 
in the summer of 1786 they were overtaken by the craze 
for paper money. At the meeting of the legislature in May, 
a petition came in from Bristol County, praying for an issue 
of paper. The petitioners admitted that such money was 
sure to deteriorate in value, and they doubted the wisdom 
of trying to keep it up by forcing acts. Instead of this 
they would have the rate of its deterioration regulated by 
law, so that a dollar might be worth ninety cents to-day, and 
presently seventy cents, and by and by fifty cents, and so 
on till it should go down to zero and be thrown overboard. 
People would thus know what to expect, and it would be all 
right. The delicious naivete of this argument did not pre- 
vail with the legislature of Massachusetts, and soft money 
was frowned down by a vote of ninety-nine to nineteen. 
Then a bill was brought in seeking to reestablish in legisla- 
tion the ancient practice of barter, and make horses and 
cows legal tender for debts ; and this bill was crushed by 
eighty-nine votes against thirty-five. At the same time this 
legislature passed a bill to strengthen the federal govern- 
ment by a grant of supplementary funds to Congress, and 
thus laid a further burden of taxes upon the people. 

There was an outburst of popular wrath. A convention 
at Hatfield in August decided that the court of common 
pleas ought to be abolished, that no funds should be granted 
to Congress, and that paper money should be issued at 
once. Another convention at Lenox denounced such incen- 
diary measures, approved of supporting the federal govern- 



*\.>;- 



ib'Siit- 






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SPECIMEN OF SOUTH CAROLINA CURRENCY 



pEMOffigilpgiMilg 



fp'l3| '-^-''^^^^^ "^^'^^ ^^^^ entitles 

•C;'^: //.^ '''- ''''*^"^'~"' ""'-^K t^e Bearer tore 

I®! N ¥ ^^ 



^ J2 !'^e ^^fi£^ thereof in 




XL "DOJit^mS, 



.^JS'^!/^*^ cording to aCe^/ij- 
M^^^ r/^.^ paifed by ^'^'A- 




Sept. s^f.f, ijTj^ra. 



as 



miimimB'' 



-.ENUINE CONTINENTAL NOTE 



«fflJ«IIl^B^;®mES 



This Bill tntitlesg 
the Be a re f to r? 

fiO'« paricd by Son 







^L N 1 tKl 111 1 cii.N 1 IMiM AL NOTH 



1786 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 



195 




OLD STREET VIEW IN WORCESTER 



ment, and declared that no good could come from the issue 
of paper money. But meanwhile the angry farmers had 
resorted to violence. The legislature, they said, had its sit- 
tings in Boston, under the influence of wicked lawyers and 
merchants, and thus could not be expected to do the will of 
the people. A cry went up that henceforth the law-makers 
must sit in some small inland town, where jealous eyes 
might watch their proceedings. Meanwhile the lawyers 
must be dealt with ; and at Northampton, Worcester, Great 
Barrington, and Concord the courts were broken up by 
armed mobs. At Concord one Job Shattuck brought sev- 
eral hundred armed men into the town and surrounded the 
court-house, while in a fierce harangue he declared that the 
time had come for wiping out all debts. " Yes," squeaked a 
nasal voice from the crowd, — " yes. Job, we know all about 
them two farms you can't never pay for ! " But this repar- 
tee did not save the judges, who thought it best to flee from 
the town. At first the legislature deemed it wise to take a 
lenient view of these proceedings, and it even went so far as 
to promise to hold its next session out of Boston. But the 
agitation had reached a point where it could not be stayed. 
In September the supreme court was to sit at Springfield, 
and Governor Bowdoin sent a force of 600 militia under 



196 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

General Shepard to protect it. They were confronted by 
some 600 insurgents, under the leadership of Daniel Shays. 
This man had been a captain in the Continental army, and 
in his force were many of the penniless veterans whom 
Gates would fain have incited to rebellion at Newburgh. 
Shays seems to have done what he could to restrain his 
men from violence, but he was a poor creature, wanting 
alike in courage and good faith. On the other hand, the 
militia were lacking in spirit. After a disorderly parley, 
with much cursing and swearing, they beat a retreat, and the 
court was prevented from sitting. Fresh riots followed at 
Worcester and Concord. A regiment of cavalry, sent out 
by the governor, scoured Middlesex County, and, after a 
short fight in the woods near Groton, captured Job Shat- 
tuck and dispersed his men. But this only exasperated the 
insurgents. They assembled in Worcester to the number 
of 1,200 or more, where they lived for two months at free 
quarters, while Shays organized and drilled them. 

Meanwhile the habeas corpus act was suspended for eight 
months, and Governor Bowdoin called out an army of 4,400 
men, who were placed under command of General Lincoln. 
As the state treasury was nearly empty, some wealthy 
gentlemen in Boston subscribed the money needed for equip- 
ping these troops, and about the middle of January, 1787, 
they were collected at Worcester. The rebels had behaved 
shamefully, burning barns and seizing all the plunder they 
could lay hands on. As their numbers increased they found 
their military stores inadequate, and accordingly they 
marched upon Springfield, with the intent to capture the 
federal arsenal there, and provide themselves with muskets 
and cannon. General Shepard held Springfield with 1,200 
men, and on the 25th of January Shays attacked him with a 
force of somewhat more than 2,000, hoping to crush him and 
seize the arsenal before Lincoln could come to the rescue. 
But his plan of attack was faulty, and as soon as his men 
began falling under Shepard' s fire a panic seized them, and 
they retreated in disorder to Ludlow, and then to Amherst, 



1787 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 



197 



setting fire to houses and robbing the inhabitants. On the 
approach of Lincoln's army, three days later, Shays The insur- 
retreated to Pelham, and planted his forces on two p^ressed^b^ 
steep hills protected at the bottom by huge snow- state troops 
drifts. Lincoln advanced to Hadley and sought to open 
negotiations with the rebels. They were reminded that a 
contest with the state government was hopeless, and that 
they had already incurred the penalty of death ; but if they 




<1 1 V 



HOUSE IN PETERSHAM WHERE SHAYS WAS CAPTURED 



would now lay down their arms and go home, a free pardon 
could be obtained for them. Shays seemed willing to yield, 
and Saturday, the 3d of February, was appointed for a con- 
ference between some of the leading rebels and some of the 
officers. But this was only a stratagem. During the confer- 
ence Shays decamped and marched his men through Prescott 
and North Dana to Petersham. Toward nightfall the trick 
was discovered, and Lincoln set his whole force in motion 
over the mountain ridges of Shutesbury and New Salem. 
The day had been mild, but during the night the thermome- 
ter dropped below zero and an icy, cutting snow began to 
fall. There was great suffering during the last ten miles, 



igS THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

and indeed the whole march of thirty miles in thirteen hours 
over steep and snow-covered roads was a worthy exploit for 
these veterans of the Revolution. Shays and his men had 
not looked for such a display of energy, and as they were 
getting their breakfast on Sunday morning at Petersham 
they were taken by surprise. A few minutes sufficed to 
scatter them in flight. A hundred and fifty, including Shays 
himself, were taken prisoners. The rest fled in all direc- 
tions, most of them to Athol and Northfield, whence they 
made their way into Vermont. General Lincoln then 
marched his troops into the mountains of Berkshire, where 
disturbances still continued. On the 26th of February one 
Captain Hamlin, with several hundred insurgents, plundered 
the town of Stockbridge and carried off the leading citizens 
as hostages. He was pursued as far as Sheffield, defeated 
there in a sharp skirmish, with a loss of some thirty in killed 
and wounded, and his troops scattered. This put an end to 
the insurrection in Massachusetts. 

During the autumn similar disturbances had occurred in 

the states to the northward. At Exeter in New Hampshire 

and at Windsor and Rutland in Vermont the courts had 

been broken up by armed mobs, and at Rutland there had 

, been bloodshed. When the Shays rebellion was 

Conduct of -i-> 1 . 11 -1 

neighbour- put down, Govcmor Bowdom requested the neigh- 
ing s a es ijouring states to lend their aid in bringing the 
insurgents to justice, and all complied with the request 
except Vermont and Rhode Island. The legislature of 
Rhode Island sympathized with the rebels, and refused to 
allow the governor to issue a warrant for their arrest. On 
the other hand, the governor of Vermont issued a proclama- 
tion out of courtesy toward Massachusetts, but he caused it 
to be understood that this was but an empty form, as the 
state of Vermont could not afford to discourage immigration ! 
A feeling of compassion for the insurgents was widely 
spread in Massachusetts. In March the leaders were tried, 
and fourteen were convicted of treason and sentenced to 
death ; but Governor Bowdoin, whose term was about to 




Commonwealth of Maflachufetts. 

By His EXCELLENCY 

JamesBowdoin,Efq. 

GOVERNOUR of the COMMONWEALTH of 
MASSACHUSETTS. 

A Proclamation* 

WHEREAS by an Aft pafled the fixteenth ofFebruary inftanl, 
entitled, " An Adl defcribing the difqualifications. to which perfbca 
fliall befubjefted, which have been, or may be guilty of Trealbn, or giv- 
ing aid or fupport to the prefent Rebellion, and to whom a pardon may be ex- 
tended." the General Court have eftabliflied and made known the conditions 
and difqualifications, upon which pardon and indemnity to certain cfftnders, 
defcribed in tfie faid Aft, lliall be offered and given ; and have authorized and 
empowered the Governour, in the name of the General Cqurt, to promife to 
fuch offenders fuch conditional pardon and indemnity : 

I HAVE thought fit, by virtue of the authority vcfted 

in me by the faid A (3:. to iflue this Proclamation, hereby prrmifing pardon 
dnd indemnity to all offenders within the dcfcription aiorefaid, who are citizens 
of this State ; under fuch refhidlions. conditions and difqualifications, as are 
mentioned in the faid Adl . provided they comply with the terms and condi- 
tions thereof, on or before the twenty-firft day of March next. 

G I y E N at the Council Chamber in Bo/lon, this Seventeenth Day of February, in the Tear 
iif our LORD One Thoufind Seven Hundred and Eif^hty Seven, and in the Eleventh Tear 
<(ftht Independence of the UvlieJ States oj AMERICA. 

J;A-M ES BOWDOIN. 

By H<s Excellency s Command, 

JOHN AVERY, juB. Secieaiy. 

BOSTON ; Pruited by ADAMS & NOURSE, Printeri to tho GENERAL COURT 



200 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

expire, granted a reprieve for a few weeks. At the annual 
election in April the candidates for the governorship were 
Bovvdoin and Hancock, and it was generally believed that 
the latter would be more likely than the former to pardon 
the convicted men. So strong was this feeling that, although 
much gratitude was felt toward Bowdoin, to whose energetic 
measures the prompt suppression of the rebellion was due, 
Hancock obtained a large majority. When the question of 
a pardon came up for discussion, Samuel Adams, who was 
then president of the senate, was strongly opposed to it, and 
one of his arguments was very characteristic. " In mon- 
archies," he said, "the crime of treason and rebellion may 
admit of being pardoned or lightly punished ; but the man 
who dares to rebel against the laws of a republic ought to 
suffer death." This was Adams's sensitive point. He 
wanted the whole world to realize that the rule of a republic 
is a rule of law and order, and that liberty does not mean 
license. But in spite of this view, for which there was 
much to be said, the clemency of the American tempera- 
ment prevailed, and Governor Hancock pardoned all the 
prisoners. 

Nothing in the history of these disturbances is more 
instructive than the light incidentally thrown upon the rela- 
tions between Congress and the state government. Just 
before the news of the rout at Petersham, Samuel Adams had 
proposed in the senate that the governor should be requested 
to write to Congress and inform that body of what was 
going on in Massachusetts, stating that " although the legis- 
lature are firmly persuaded that ... in all probability they 
will be able speedily and effectively to suppress the rebellion, 
yet, if any unforeseen event should take place which may 
frustrate the measures of government, they rely upon such 
support from the United States as is expressly and solemnly 
stipulated by the articles of confederation." A resolution 
to this effect was carried in the senate, but defeated in the 
house through the influence of western county members in 
sympathy with the insurgents ; and incredible as it may 



1787 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 



seem, the argument was freely used that it was incompatible 
with the dignity of Massachusetts to allow United States 
troops to set foot upon her soil. When we reflect that the 
arsenal at Springfield, where the most considerable disturb- 
ance occurred, was itself federal property, the climax of 
absurdity might seem to have been reached. 




<k^!^nryL.e^ 



(yd'o-t<y~z67-/n 



/o^ 



It was left for Congress itself, however, to cap that cli- 
max. The progress of the insurrection in the autumn in 
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, as well as 
the troubles in Rhode Island, had alarmed the whole coun- 
try. It was feared that the insurgents in these states might 
join forces, and in some way kindle a flame that ^ 

, , , . Congress 

would run through the land. Accordingly Con- afraid to 
gress in October called upon the states for a con- 
tinental force, but did not dare to declare openly what it was 
to be used for. It was thought necessary to say that the 



202 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, iv 

troops were wanted for an expedition against the northwest- 
ern Indians ! National humihation could go no further 
than such a confession, on the part of our central govern- 
ment, that it dared not use force in defence of those very- 
articles of confederation to which it owed its existence. 
Things had come to such a pass that people of all shades of 
opinion were beginning to agree upon one thing, — that 
something must be done, and done quickly. 



CHAPTER V 

GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

While the events we have heretofore contemplated 
seemed to prophesy the speedy dissolution and downfall of 
the half-formed American Union, a series of causes, obscure 
enough at first, but emerging gradually into distinctness 
and then into prominence, were preparing the way for the 
foundation of a national sovereignty. The growth of this 
sovereignty proceeded stealthily along such ancient 
lines of precedent as to take ready hold of people's a national 
minds, although few, if any, understood the full bey'^ndthe 
purport of what they were doing. Ever since the Aiiegha- 
days when our English forefathers dwelt in village 
communities in the forests of northern Germany, the idea 
of a common land or folkland — a territory belonging to 
the whole community, and upon which new communities 
might be organized by a process analogous to what physiolo- 
gists call cell-multiplication — had been perfectly familiar to 
everybody. Townships budded from village or parish folk- 
land in Maryland and Massachusetts in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, just as they had done in England before the time of 
Alfred. The critical period of the Revolution witnessed the 
repetition of this process on a gigantic scale. It witnessed 
the creation of a national territory beyond the Alleghanies, 
— an enormous folkland in which all the thirteen old states 
had a common interest, and upon which new and derivative 
communities were already beginning to organize themselves. 
Questions about public lands are often regarded as the driest 
of historical deadwood. Discussions about them in news- 
papers and magazines belong to the class of articles which 
the general reader usually skips. Yet there is a great deal 



204 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 



of the philosophy of history wrapped up in this subject, and 
it now comes to confront us at a most interesting moment ; 
for without studying this creation of a national domain 
between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, we cannot 
understand how our Federal Union came to be formed. 

When England began to contend with France and Spain 
for the possession of North America, she made royal grants 
of land upon this continent, in royal ignorance of its extent 
and configuration. But until the Seven Years' War the 
eastward and westward partitioning of these grants was 
of little practical consequence ; for English dominion was 
bounded by the Alleghanies, and everything beyond was in 
the hands of the French. In that most momentous war 
the genius of the elder Pitt won the region east of the Mis- 
sissippi for men of English race, while the vast territory 
of Louisiana, beyond, passed under the control of Spain. 
During the Revolutionary War, in a series of romantic expe- 
ditions, the state of Virginia took military possession of a 
great part of the wilderness east of the Mississippi, founding 
towns in the Ohio and Cumberland valleys, and occupying 
with garrisons of her state militia the posts at Cahokia, 
Kaskaskia, and Vincennes. We have seen how, through the 
skill of our commissioners at Paris, this noble country was 
Conflicting sccurcd for the Americans in the treaty of 1783, 
tlfJwestein ^^ spitc of the reluctauce of France and the hos- 
territory tility of Spain. Throughout the Revolutionary 
War the Americans claimed the territory as part of the 
United States ; but when once it passed from under the 
control of Great Britain, into whose hands did it go .■* To 
whom did it belong .'' To this question there were various 
and conflicting answers. North Carolina, indeed, had already 
taken possession of what was afterward called Tennessee, 
and at the beginning of the war Virginia had annexed Ken- 
tucky. As to these points there could be little or no dis- 
pute. But with the territory north of the Ohio River it was 
very different. Four states laid claim either to the whole or 
to parts of this territory, and these claims were not simply 
conflicting, but irreconcilable. 



1777-85 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 205 

The charters of Massachusetts and Connecticut were 
framed at a time when people had not got over the notion 
that this part of the continent was scarcely wider than 
Mexico, and accordingly those colonies had received the 
royal permission to extend from sea to sea. The existence 
of a foreign colony of Dutchmen in the neigh- Qi^i,^^g ^j 
bourhood was a trifle about which these documents Massachu- 

V setts and 

did not trouble themselves ; but when Charles II. Connecti- 
conquered this colony and bestowed it upon his 
brother, the province of New York became a stubborn fact, 
which could not be disregarded. Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut peaceably settled their boundary line with New 
York, and laid no claims to land within the limits of that 
state ; but they still continued to claim what lay beyond it, 
as far as the Mississippi River, where the Spanish dominion 
now began. The regions claimed by Massachusetts have 
since become the southern halves of the states of Michigan 
and Wisconsin. The region claimed by Connecticut was a 
narrow strip running over the northern portions of Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, Indiana, and lUinois ; and we have seen how 
much trouble was occasioned in Pennsylvania by this cir- 
cumstance. 

But New York laughed to scorn these claims of Connec- 
ticut. In the seventeenth century all the Algon- claims of 
quin tribes between Lake Erie and the Cumber- ^^^ ^"""^ 
land Mountains had become tributary to the Iroquois ; and 
during the hundred years' struggle between France and 
England for the supremacy of this continent the Iroquois 
had put themselves under the protection of England, which 
thenceforth always treated them as an appurtenance to New 
York. For a hundred years before the Revolution, said 
New York, she had borne the expense of protecting the 
Iroquois against the French, and by various treaties she had 
become lawful suzerain over the SLx Nations and their lands 
and the lands of their Algonquin vassals. On such grounds 
New York claimed pretty much everything north of the 
Ohio and east of the Miami 



2o6 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

But, according to Virginia, it made little difference what 
Massachusetts and Connecticut and New York thought 
about the matter, for every acre of land, from the Ohio 
Virginia's Rivcr up to Lake Superior, belonged to her. Was 
claims j^Q^. gj^g ^.j^g jQj.^|y „ Qi^ Dominion," out of which 

every one of the states had been carved ? Even Cape Cod 
and Cape Ann were said to be in " North Virginia " until, in 
1614, Captain John Smith invented the name "New Eng- 
land." It was a fair presumption that any uncai-ved terri- 
tory belonged to Virginia ; and it was further held that the 
original charter of 1609 used language which implicitly cov- 
ered the northwestern territory, though, as Thomas Paine 
showed, in a pamphlet entitled "Public Good," this was very 
doubtful. But besides all this, it was Virginia that had 
actually conquered the disputed territory, and held every 
military post in it except those which the British had not yet 
surrendered ; and who could doubt that possession was nine 
points in the law .-' 

Of these conflicting claims, those of New York and Vir- 
ginia were the most grasping and the most formidable, 
because they concerned a region into which immigration was 
beginning rapidly to pour. They were regarded with strong 
disfavour by the small states, Rhode Island, New Jersey, 
Delaware, and Maryland, which were so situated that they 
never could expand in any direction. They looked forward 

with dread to a future in which New York and 
novel and ^ Virginia might wax powerful enough to tyrannize 
suggest^n, ^^^^ their smaller neighbours. But of these pro- 
Oct. 15, testing states it was only Maryland that fairly 

rose to the occasion, and suggested an idea which 
seemed startling at first, but from which mighty and unfore- 
seen consequences were soon to follow.^ It was on the 15th 

^ This subject has been treated in a masterly manner by Mr. H. B. 
Adams, in an essay on " Maryland's Influence upon Land Cessions to 
the United States," published in the Third Series of the admirable 
Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Politics. I am 
indebted to Mr. Adams for many valuable suggestions. 



1777-85 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 207 

of October, 1777, just two days before Burgoyne's surren- 
der, that this path-breaking idea first found expression in 
Congress. The articles of confederation were then just 
about to be presented to the several states to be ratified, 
and the question arose as to how the conflicting western 
claims should be settled. A motion was then made that 
"the United States in Congress assembled shall have the 
sole and exclusive right and power to ascertain and fix the 
western boundary of such states as claim to the Mississippi, 
. . . and lay out the land beyond the boundary so ascer- 
tained into separate and independent states, from time to 
time, as the numbers and circumstances of the people may 
require." To carry out such a motion, it would be neces- 
sary for the four claimant states to surrender their claims 
into the hands of the United States, and thus create a 
domain which should be owned by the confederacy in com- 
mon. So bold a step towards centralization found no favour 
at the time. No other state but Maryland voted for it. 

But Maryland's course was well considered : she pursued 
it resolutely, and was rewarded with complete success. By 
February, 1779, all the other states had ratified the articles 
of confederation. In the following May, Maryland declared 
that she would not ratify the articles until she should 
receive some definite assurance that the northwestern terri- 
tory should become the common property of the United 
States, " subject to be parcelled out by Congress into free, 
convenient, and independent governments." The question, 
thus boldly brought into the foreground, was earnestly dis- 
cussed in Congress and in the state legislatures, until in 
February, 1780, partly through the influence of General 
Schuyler, New York decided to cede all her claims 
to the western lands. This act of New York set erai states 
things in motion, so that in September Congress claims in"^ 
recommended to all states having western claims [hrun*ited 

to cede them to the United States. In October, ^^l^^^' 

17S0-85 

Congress, still pursuing the Maryland idea, went 

farther, and declared that all such lands as might be ceded 



2o8 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

should be sold in lots to immigrants and the money used for 
federal purposes, and that in due season distinct states 
should be formed there, to be admitted into the Union, 
with the same rights of sovereignty as the original thirteen 
states. As an inducement to Virginia, it was further pro- 
vided that any state which had incurred expense during the 
war in defending its western possessions should receive com- 
pensation. To this general invitation Connecticut immedi- 
ately responded by offering to cede everything to which she 
laid claim, except 3,250,000 acres on the southern shore of 
Lake Erie, which she wished to reserve for educational pur- 
poses. Washington disapproved of this reservation, but it 
was accepted by Congress, though the business was not 
completed until 1786. This part of the state of Ohio is 
still commonly spoken of as the "Connecticut Reserve," or 
"Western Reserve." Half a million acres, known as " Fire 
Lands," were given to citizens of Connecticut whose pro- 
perty had been destroyed in the British raids that set fire 
to her coast towns, and the rest were afterward sold for 
$1,200,000, in aid of schools and colleges. 

In January, 1781, Virginia offered to surrender all the 
territory northwest of the Ohio, provided that Congress 
would guarantee her in the possession of Kentucky. This 
gave rise to a discussion which lasted nearly three years, 
until Virginia withdrew her proviso and made the cession 
absolute. It was accepted by Congress on the ist of March, 
1784, and on the 19th of April, in the following year, — the 
tenth anniv^ersary of Lexington, — Massachusetts surren- 
dered her claims ; and the whole northwestern territory — 
the area of the great states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, 
Indiana, and Ohio (excepting the Connecticut Reserve) ^ — 
thus became the common property of the half-formed nation. 
Maryland, however, did not wait for this. As soon as New 
York and Virginia had become thoroughy committed to the 
movement, she ratified the articles of confederation, which 
thus went into operation on the ist of March, 1781. 
^ This was surrendered to the United States in 1800. 



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1777-85 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 209 

This acquisition of a common territory speedily led to 
results not at all contemplated in the theory of union upon 
which the articles of confederation were based. It led to 
" the exercise of national sovereignty in the sense of eminent 
domain," as shown in the ordinances of 1784 and 1787, and 
prepared men's minds for the work of the Federal Conven- 
tion. Great credit is due to Maryland for her resolute 
course in setting in motion this train of events. It aroused 
fierce indignation at the time, as to many people it looked 
unfriendly to the Union. Some hot-heads were even heard 
to say that if Maryland should persist any longer in her 
refusal to join the confederation, she ought to be summarily 
divided up between the neighbouring states, and her name 
erased from the map. But the brave little state had earned 
a better fate than that of Poland. When we have come to 
trace out the results of her action, we shall see that just as 
it was Massachusetts that took the decisive step in bringing 
on the Revolutionary War when she threw the tea into 
Boston harbour, so it was Maryland that, by leading the 
way toward the creation of a national domain, laid the corner- 
stone of our Federal Union. Equal credit must be given to 
Virginia for her magnanimity in making the desired surren- 
der. It was New York, indeed, that set the praiseworthy 
example ; but New York, after all, surrendered only a 
shadowy claim, whereas Virginia gave up a magnificent and 
princely territory of which she was actually in pos- 
session. She might have held back and made imity of 
endless trouble, just as, at the beginning of the "^'"'^ 
Revolution, she might have refused to make common cause 
with Massachusetts ; but in both instances her leading 
statesmen showed a far-sighted wisdom and a breadth of 
patriotism for which no words of praise can be too strong. 
In the later instance, as in the earlier, Thomas Jefferson 
played an important part. He, who in after years, as presi- 
dent of the United States, was destined, by the purchase 
of Louisiana and the exploration of Oregon, to carry our 
western frontier beyond the Rocky Mountains, had, in 1779, 



2IO THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

done more than any one else to support the romantic cam- 
paign in which General Clark had taken possession of the 
country between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. He 
had much to do with the generous policy which gave up the 
greater part of that country for a national domain, and on 
the very day on which the act of cession was completed 
he presented to Congress a remarkable plan for the govern- 
ment of the new territory, which was only partially success- 
ful because it attempted too much, but the results of which 
were in many ways notable. 

In this plan, known as the Ordinance of 1784, Jefferson 
proposed to divide the northwestern territory into ten states, 
or just twice as many as have actually grown out of it. In 
each of these states the settlers might establish a local 
government, under the authority of Congress ; and 
proposes a whcu in any one of them the population should 
government comc to cqual that of the least populous of the 
for the original states, it might be admitted into the Union 

northwest- *=> ' t> 

em terri- by the conscut of nine states in Congress. The 
new states were to have universal suffrage ; they 
must have republican forms of government ; they must pay 
their shares of the federal debt ; they must forever remain a 
part of the United States ; and after the year 1 800 negro 
slavery must be prohibited within their limits. The names 
of these ten states have afforded much amusement to Jef- 
ferson's biographers. In those days the schoolmaster was 
abroad in the land after a peculiar fashion. Just as we are 
now in the full tide of that Gothic revival which goes back 
for its beginnings to Sir Walter Scott ; as we admire mediae- 
val things, and try to build our houses after old English 
models, and prefer words of what people call " Saxon " 
origin, and name our children Roland and Herbert, or Edith 
and Winifred, so our great-grandfathers lived in a time of 
classical revival. They were always looking for precedents 
in Greek and Roman history ; they were just beginning to 
try to make their wooden houses look like temples, with 
Doric columns ; they preferred words of Latin origin ; they 



1784 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 




JEFFERSON'S PROPOSED STATES IN THE NORTHWEST, 17S4 



signed their pamphlets "Brutus" and " Lycurgus," and in 
sober earnest baptized their children as Caesar, or Marcellus, 
or Darius. The map of the United States was just about to 
bloom forth with towns named Ithaca and Syracuse, Corinth 
and Sparta ; and on the Ohio River, opposite the mouth of 
Licking Creek, a city had lately been founded, the name of 
which was truly portentous. " Losantiville " was this won- 



212 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

derful compound, in which the initial L stood for " Licking," 
while OS signified "mouth," anti "opposite," and ville 
"town;" and the whole read neatly backwards as " Town- 
opposite-mouth-of-Licking." In 1790 General St. Clair, then 
governor of the northwest territory, changed this name to 
Cincinnati, in honor of the military order to which he 
belonged. With such examples in mind, we may see that 
the names of the proposed ten states, from which the failure 
of Jefferson's ordinance has delivered us, illustrated the 
prevalent taste of the time rather than any idiosyncrasy of 
the man. The proposed names were Sylvania, Michigania, 
Chersonesus, Assenisipia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga, 
Washington, Polypotamia, and Pelisipia. 

It was not the nomenclature that stood in the way of 
Jefferson's scheme, but the wholesale way in which he tried 
to deal with the slavery question. He wished to hem in the 
probable extension of slavery by an impassable barrier, and 
accordingly he not only provided that it should be 
to prohibit extinguished in the northwestern territory after 
fnThe^ the year 1800, but at the same time his anti-slav- 
nationai ej-y ardour led him to try to extend the national 

domain ■' i tt t i i • i 

dommion southward. He did his best to persuade 
the legislature of Virginia to crown its work b}^ giving up 
Kentucky to the United States, and he urged that North 
Carolina and Georgia should also cede their western terri- 
tories. As for South Carolina, she was shut in between 
the two neighbouring states in such wise that her western 
claims were vague and barren. Jefferson would thus have 
drawn a north-and-south line from Lake Erie down to the 
Spanish border of the Floridas, and west of this line he 
would have had all negro slavery end with the eighteenth 
century. The policy of restricting slavery, so as to let it die 
a natural death within a narrowly confined area, — the policy 
to sustain which Lincoln was elected president in i860, — 
was thus first definitely outlined by Jefferson in 1784. It 
was the policy of forbidding slavery in the national territory. 
Had this policy succeeded then, it would have been an 



1784 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 213 

ounce of prevention worth many a pound of cure. But it 
failed because of its largeness, because it had too many ele- 
ments to deal with. For the moment, the proposal to exclude 
slavery from the northwestern territory was defeated. It 
got only six states in its favour, where it needed seven.^ 
This defeat, however, was retrieved three years later, when 
the famous Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery forever 
from the national territory north of the Ohio River. But 
Jefferson's scheme had not only to deal with the national 
domain as it was, but also to extend that domain south- 
ward to Florida ; and in this it failed. Virginia could not 
be persuaded to give up Kentucky until too late. When 
Kentucky came into the Union, after the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution, she came as a sovereign state, with 
all her domestic institutions in her own hands. With the 
western districts of North Carolina the case was somewhat 
different, and the story of this region throws a curious light 
upon the affairs of that disorderly time. 

In surrendering her western territory. North Carolina 
showed praiseworthy generosity. But the frontier settlers 
were too numerous to be handed about from one dominion 
to another, without saying something about it themselves; 
and their action complicated the matter, until it was too late 
for Jefferson's scheme to operate upon them. In June, 
1784, North Carolina ceded the region since known as Ten- 
nessee, and allowed Congress two years in which to accept 
the grant. Meanwhile, her own authority was to remain 
supreme there. But the settlers grumbled and protested. 
Some of them were sturdy pioneers of the finest type, but 
along with these there was a lawless population of " white 
trash," ancestors of the peculiar race of men we find to-day 

^ " Ten states were present. The 4 Eastern states, N. York, and 
Penns., were for the clause. Jersey would have been for it, but there 
were but two members, one of whom was sick in his chambers. South 
Carolina, Maryland, and ! Virginia ! voted against it. N. Carolina 
was divided, as would have been Virginia, had not one of its delegates 
been sick in bed." Jefferson to Madison, April 25, 1784. 



214 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

in rural districts of Missouri and Arkansas, They were 
the refuse of North Carohna, gradually pushed westward 
by the advance of an orderly civilization. Crime was rife in 
the settlements, and, in the absence of courts, a rough-and- 
ready justice was administered by vigilance committees. 
The Cherokees, moreover, were troublesome neighbours, 
and people lived in dread of their tomahawks. Petitions had 
again and again gone up to the legislature, urging the estab- 
lishment of courts and a militia, but had passed unheeded, 
and now it seemed that the state had withdrawn her pro- 
tection entirely. The settlers did not wish to have their 
country made a national domain. If their own state could 
not protect them, it was quite clear to them that Congress 
could not. What was Congress, any way, but a roomful of 
men whom nobody heeded ? So these backwoodsmen held 
a convention in a log-cabin at Jonesborough, and seceded 
from North Carolina. They declared that the counties 
between the Bald Mountains and the Clinch River consti- 
tuted an independent state, to which they gave the name of 
hn Se Franklin ; ^ and they went on to frame a constitu- 
vier, and tiou and clcct a legislature with two chambers. 
Franklin, For govcmor they chose John Sevier, one of the 
^^ ■^" heroes of King's Mountain, a man of Huguenot 

ancestry, and such dauntless nature that he has been some- 
times called the "lion of the border." Having done all this, 
the seceders, in spite of their small respect for Congress, 
sent a delegate to that body, requesting that the new state 
of Franklin might be admitted into the Union. Before this 
business had been completed. North Carolina repealed her 
act of cession, and warned the backwoodsmen to return to 
their allegiance. This at once split the new state into two 
factions : one party wished to keep on as they had now 
started, the other wished for reunion with North Carolina. 

^ The name was given in honour of Benjamin Franklin. An attempt 
was made to modify it to Frankland (i. e. " land of the free "), but this 
was voted down. It is often referred to, however, as the state of 
Frankland. 



1786 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 



215 



In 1786 the one party in each county elected members to 
represent them in the North CaroHna legislature, while the 
other party elected members of the legislature of Franklin. 
Everywhere two sets of officers claimed authority, civil 
dudgeon grew very high, and pistols were freely used. 
The agitation extended into the neighbouring counties of 







€^xu> 



Virginia, where some discontented people wished to secede 
and join the state of Franklin. For the next two years 
there was something like civil war, until the North Carolina 
party grew so strong that Sevier fled, and the state of Frank- 
lin ceased to exist. Sevier was arrested on a warrant for 
high treason, but he effected an escape, and after men's pas- 
sions had cooled down his great services and strong charac- 
ter brought him again to the front. He sat in the senate 
of North Carolina, and in 1 796, when Tennessee became a 
state in the Union, Sevier was her first governor. 



2i6 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

These troubles show how impracticable was the attempt 
to create a national domain in any part of the country which 
contained a considerable population. The instinct of self- 
government was too strong to allow it. Any such population 
would have refused to submit to ordinances of Congress. 
To obey the parent state or to set up for one's self, — these 
were the only alternatives which ordinary men at that time 
could understand. Experience had not yet ripened their 
minds for comprehending a temporary condition of semi- 
independence, such as exists to-day under our territorial 
pfovernments. The behaviour of these Tennessee back- 
woodsmen was just what might have been expected. The 
land on which they were living was not common land : it 
had been appropriated ; it belonged to them, and it was for 
them to make laws for it. Such is the lesson of the short- 
lived state of Franklin. It was because she perceived that 
similar feelings were at work in Kentucky that Virginia did 
not venture to loosen her grasp upon that state until it was 
fully organized and ready for admission into the Union. It 
was in no such partly settled country that Congress could 
do such a thing as carve out boundaries and prohibit slavery 
by an act of national sovereignty. There remained the 
magnificent territory north of the Ohio, — an empire in 
itself, as large as the German Empire, with the Netherlands 
thrown in, — in which the collective wisdom of the Ameri- 
can people, as represented in Congress, might autocratically 
shape the future ; for it was still a wilderness, watched by 
frontier garrisons, and save for the Indians and the trappers 
and a few sleepy old French towns on the eastern bank of 
the Mississippi, there were no signs of human life in all its 
vast solitude. Here, where there was nobody to grumble or 
secede, Congress, in 1787, proceeded to carry out the work 
which Jefferson had outlined three years before. 

It is interesting to trace the immediate origin of the 
famous Ordinance of 1787. At the close of the war General 
Rufus Putnam, from the mountain village of Rutland in 
Massachusetts, sent to Congress an outline of a plan for 



1787 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 



217 



colonizing the region between Lake Erie and the Ohio with 
veterans of the army, who were well fitted to protect the 
border against Indian attacks. The land was to be laid out 
in townships six miles square, " with large reserva- . 
tions for the ministry and schools ; " and by selling the Ohio 
it to the soldiers at a merely nominal price, the '^""^p^"^ 
penniless Congress might obtain an income, and at the 
same time recognize their services in the only substantial 




^Inxyuy (^d^^nA^TA^ 



way that seemed practicable. Washington strongly favoured 
the scheme, but, in order to carry it out, it was necessary to 
wait until the cession of the territory by the various claimant 
states should be completed. After this had been done, a 
series of treaties were made with the Sbc Nations, as over- 
lords, and their vassal tribes, the Wyandots, Chippewas, 
Ottawas, Delawares, and Shawnees, whereby all Indian 
claims to the lands in question were forever renounced. 
The matter was then formally taken up by Holden Parsons 



2l8 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 



CHAP. V 



of Connecticut, and Rufus Putnam, Manasseh Cutler, Win- 
throp Sargent, and others, of Massachusetts, and a joint- 
stock company was formed for the purchase of lands on the 
Ohio River. A large number of settlers ■ — old soldiers of 
excellent character, whom the war had impoverished — were 
ready to go and take possession at once ; and in its petition 
the Ohio company asked for nothing better than that its 




RUFUS Putnam's house at Rutland, mass. 



settlers should be "under the immediate government of 
Congress in such mode and for such time as Congress shall 
judge proper." Such a proposal, affording a means at once 
of replenishing the treasury and satisfying the soldiers, could 
not but be accepted ; and thus were laid the foundations of 
a state destined within a century to equal in population and 
far surpass in wealth the whole Union as it was at that time. 
It became necessary at once to lay down certain general 
principles of government applicable to the northwestern 
territory ; and the result was the Ordinance of 1787, which 
was chiefly the work of Edward Carrington and Richard 
Henry Lee of Virginia, and Nathan Dane of Massachusetts, 
in committee, following the outlines of a draft which is sup- 
posed to have been made by Manasseh Cutler. Jefferson 
was no longer on the ground, having gone on his mission 



1787 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 219 

to Paris, but some of the principles of his proposed Ordi- 
nance of 1784 were adopted. 

It was provided that the northwestern territory should 
ultimately be carved into states, not exceeding five in num- 
ber, and any one of these might be admitted into the Union 
as soon as its population should reach 60,000. In the mean 
time, the whole territory was to be governed by 
officers appointed by Congress, and required to nance of 
take an oath of allegiance to the United States. '^ '' 
Under this government there was to be unqualified freedom 








of religious worship, and no religious tests should be required 
of any public official. Intestate property should descend in 
equal shares to children of both sexes. Public schools were 
to be established. Suffrage was not yet made universal, as 
a freehold in fifty acres was required. No law was ever to 
be made which should impair the obligation of contracts, 
and it was thoroughly agreed that this provision especially 



220 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

covered and prohibited the issue of paper money. The 
future states to be formed from this territory must make 
their laws conform to these fundamental principles, and 
under no circumstances could any one of them ever be 
separated from the Union. In such wise, the theory of 
peaceful secession was condemned in advance, so far as it 
was possible for the federal government to do so. Jefferson's 
principle, that slavery should not be permitted in the national 




MANASSEH CUTLER'S BIRTHPLACE IN CONNECTICUT 

domain, was also adopted so far as the northwest was con- 
cerned ; and it is interesting to observe the names of the 
states which were present in Congress when this clause was 
added to the ordinance. They were Georgia, the two 
Carolinas, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and 
Massachusetts ; and the vote was unanimous. No one was 



1787 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 221 

more active in bringing about this result than William 
Grayson of Virginia, who was earnestly supported by Lee. 
The action of Virginia and North Carolinia at that time 
need not surprise us. But the movements in favour of 
emancipation in these two states, and the emancipation actu- 
ally effected or going on at the north, had already made 
Georgia and South Carolina extremely sensitive about 
slavery ; and their action on this occasion can be explained 
only by supposing that they were willing to yield a point in 
this remote territory, in order by and by to be able to insist 
upon an equivalent in the case of the territory lying west 
of Georgia. Nor would they have yielded at all had not a 
fugitive slave law been enacted, providing that slaves escap- 
ing beyond the Ohio should be arrested and returned to 
their owners. These arrangements having been made. 
General St. Clair was appointed governor of the territory ; 
surveys were made ; land was put up for sale at sixty cents 
per acre, payable in certificates of the public debt ; and 
settlers rapidly came in. The westward exodus from New 
England and Pennsylvania now began, and only fourteen 
years elapsed before Ohio, the first of the five states, was 
admitted into the Union. 

"I doubt," says Daniel Webster, "whether one single 
law of any law-giver, ancient or modern, has produced effects 
of more distinct, marked, and lasting character than the 
Ordinance of 1787." Nothing could have been more emphat- 
ically an exercise of national sovereignty ; yet, as Madison 
said, while warmly commending the act. Congress did it 
"without the least colour of constitutional authority." The 
ordinance was never submitted to the states for ratification. 
The articles of confederation had never contemplated an 
occasion for such a peculiar assertion of sovereignty. " A 
great and independent fund of revenue," said Madison, " is 
passing into the hands of a single body of men, who can 
raise troops to an indefinite number, and appropriate money 
to their support for an indefinite period of time. . . . Yet 
no blame has been whispered, no alarm has been sounded," 



222 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

even by men most zealous for state rights and most suspi- 
cious of Congress. Within a few months this argument was 
to be cited with telling effect against those who hesitated to 
accept the Federal Constitution because of the great powers 
which it conferred upon the general government. Unless 
you give a government specific powers, commensurate with 
its objects, it is liable on occasions of public necessity to 
exercise powers which have not been granted. Avoid the 
dreadful dilemma between dissolution and usurpation, urged 
Madison, by clothing the government with powers that are 
ample but clearly defined. In a certain sense, the action of 
Congress in 1787 was a usurpation of authority to meet an 
emergency which no one had foreseen, as in the cases of 
Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana and Lincoln's emancipation 
Theory of of the slavcs. Each of these instances marked, in 
u^poiTwhich one way or another, a brilliant epoch in American 
l'^L°Jf,L history, and in each case the public interest was 
based so Unmistakable that the people consented and 

applauded. The theory upon which the Ordinance of 1787 
was based was one which nobody could fail to understand, 







WOLF CREEK MILLS, OHIO, I789 



1787 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 223 




CAMPUS MARTIUS, MARIETTA, OHIO 



though perhaps no one would then have known just how to 
put it into words. It was simply the thirteen states, through 
their delegates in Congress, dealing with the unoccupied 
national domain as if it were the common land or folkland 
of a stupendous township. 

The vast importance of the lands between the Alleghanies 
and the Mississippi was becoming more apparent every year, 
as the westward movement of population went on. But at 
this time their value was much more clearly seen by the 
southern than by the northern states. In the north the 
westward emigration was only just beginning to pass the 
Alleghanies ; in the south, as we have seen, it had gone 
beyond them several years before. The southern states, 
accordingly, took a much sounder view than the northern 
states of the importance to the Union of the free navigation 
of the Mississippi River. The difference was forcibly illus- 
trated in the dispute with Spain, which came to a crisis in 
the summer of 1786. It will be remembered that by the 
treaties which closed the Revolutionary War the provinces 
of East and West Florida were ceded by England to Spain. 
West Florida was the region lying between the Appalachi- 
cola and the Mississippi rivers, including the southernmost 
portions of the present states of Alabama and Mississippi, 



224 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

with a bit of Louisiana. By the treaty between Great Brit- 
Spain, ^^^ ^^^ th^ United States, the northern boundary 

thfselref ^^ ^^^^ provincc was described by the thirty-first 
article in parallel of latitude ; but Spain denied the right of 

the treaty . i , i i 

of 17S3, these powers to place the boundary so low. Her 

tem^rlnd troops Still held Natchcz, and she maintained that 

to?hut"u ^^^ boundary must be placed a hundred miles far- 

the Missis- ther north, starting from the Mississippi at the 

sippi River , 

mouth of the Yazoo River, near the present site of 
Vicksburg. Now the treaty between Great Britain and the 
United States contained a secret article, wherein it was 
provided that if England could contrive to keep West 
Florida, instead of surrendering it to Spain, then the boun- 
dary should start at the Yazoo. This showed that both Eng- 
land and the United States were willing to yield the one to 
the other a strip of territory which both agreed in withhold- 
ing from Spain. Presently the Spanish court got hold of 
the secret article, and there was great indignation. Here 
was England giving to the Americans a piece of land which 
she knew, and the Americans knew, was lately a part of 
West Florida, and therefore belonged to Spain ! Castilian 
grandees went to bed and dreamed of invincible armadas. 
Congress was promptly informed that, until this affair should 
be set right, the Americans need not expect the Spanish 
government to make any treaty of commerce with them; 
and furthermore, let no American sloop or barge dare to 
show itself on the Mississippi below the Yazoo, under 
penalty of confiscation. When these threats were heard in 
America, there was great excitement everywhere, but it 
assumed opposite phases in the north and in the south. 
The merchants of New York and Boston cared little more 
about the Mississippi River than about Timbuctoo, but they 
were extremely anxious to see a commercial treaty concluded 
with Spain. On the other hand, the backwoodsmen of 
Kentucky and the state of Franklin cared nothing for the 
trade on the ocean, but they would not sit still while their 
corn and their pork were confiscated on the way to New 



1784 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 



225 








r 




u 



P IJ G 

II 4 



^ ■ ' // ^ 

Kxpiauations. 

k ifo/rhT.'u:,- yrySr//;,-,. 

/.', /^l'J'rr?ctlje Inch. 




p r 



Orleans. The people of Virginia sympathized with the 
backwoodsmen, but her great statesmen realized the impor- 
tance of both interests and the danger of a conflict between 
them. 

The Spanish envoy, Gardoqui, arrived in the summer of 
1784, and had many interviews wich Jay, who was then 
secretary for foreign affairs. Gardoqui set forth Gardoqui 
that his royal master was graciously pleased to deal ^^^ J^^ 
leniently with the Americans, and would confer one favour 
upon them, but could not confer two. He was ready to 



226 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

enter into a treaty of commerce with us, but not until we 
should have renounced all claim to the navigation of the 
Mississippi River below the Yazoo. Here the Spaniard was 
inexorable. A year of weary argument passed by, and he 
had not budged an inch. At last, in despair, Jay advised 
Congress, for the sake of the commercial treaty, to consent 
to the closing of the Mississippi, but only for twenty-five 
years. As the rumour of this went abroad among the set- 
tlements south of the Ohio, there was an outburst of wrath, 
to which an incident that now occurred gave added viru- 
lence. A North Carolinian trader, named Amis, sailed 
down the Mississippi with a cargo of pots and kettles and 
barrels of flour. At Natchez his boat and his goods were 
seized by the Spanish officers, and he was left to make his 
way home afoot through several hundred miles of wilder- 
ness. The story of his wrongs flew from one log-cabin to 
another, until it reached the distant northwestern territory. 
In the neighbourhood of Vincennes there were Spanish 
traders, and one of them kept a shop in the town. The 
shop was sacked by a band of American soldiers, and an 
attempt was made to incite the Indians to attack the Span- 
iards. Indignation meetings were held in Kentucky. The 
people threatened to send a force of militia down the river 
and capture Natchez and New Orleans ; and a more danger- 
ous threat was made. Should the northeastern states desert 
them and adopt Jay's suggestion, they vowed they would 
secede, and throw themselves upon Great Britain for protec- 
Threats of ^^°^- ^^ ^^^ Other hand, there was great agitation 
secession [^i the scaboard towns of Massachusetts. They 

111 Ken- _ _ •' 

tucky and wcrc disgustcd with the backwoodsmen for making 
England, such a fuss about nothing, and with the people of 
'^ the southern states for aiding and abetting them ; 

and during the turbulent summer of 1786, many persons 
were heard to declare that, in case Jay's suggestion should 
not be adopted, it would be high time for the New England 
states to secede from the Union, and form a confederation by 
themselves. The situation was dangerous in the extreme. 



1786 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 



227 



Had the question been forced to an issue, the southern 
states would never have seen their western territories go and 
offer themselves to Great Britain. Sooner than that, they 
would have broken away from the northern states. But 




New Jersey and Pennsylvania now came over to the south- 
ern side, and Rhode Island, moving in her eccentric orbit, 
presently joined them; and thus the treaty was postponed 
for the present, and the danger averted. 

This lamentable dispute was watched by Washington 
with feelings of gravest concern. From an early age he 
had indulged in prophetic dreams of the grandeur of the 
coming civilization in America, and had looked to the coun- 



228 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

try beyond the mountains as the field in which the next 
generation was to find room for expansion. Few had been 
more efficient than he in aiding the great scheme of Pitt for 
overthrowing the French power in America, and he under- 
stood better than most men of his time how much that 
scheme imphed. In his early journeys in the wilderness he 
had given especial attention to the possibilities of water con- 
nection between the east and west, and he had bought for 
himself and surveyed many extensive tracts of land beyond 
the mountains. The subject was a favourite one with him, 
and he looked at it from both a commercial and a political 
point of view. What we most needed, he said in 1 770, were 
Washing- ^'^'^y transit lines between east and west, as "the 
ton's views channel of conveyance of the extensive and valu- 

on the ini- •' ^ 

portance of able trade of a rising empire. ' Just before re- 
tween east Signing liis commissiou in 1783, Washington had 
and west explored the route through the Mohawk Valley, 
afterward taken first by the Erie Canal, and then by the 
New York Central Railroad, and had prophesied its commer- 
cial importance in the present century. Soon after reaching 
his home at Mount Vernon, he turned his attention to the 
improvement of intercourse with the west through the val- 
ley of the Potomac. The east and west, he said, must be 
cemented together by interests in common ; otherwise they 
will break asunder. Without commercial intercourse they 
will cease to understand each other, and will thus be ripe 
for disagreement. It is easy for mental habits, as well as 
merchandise, to glide down stream, and the connections of 
the settlers beyond the mountains all centre in New Or- 
leans, which is in the hands of a foreign and hostile power. 
No one can tell what complications may arise from this, 
argued Washington ; " let us bind these people to us by a 
chain that can never be broken ; " and with characteristic 
energy he set to work at once to establish that line of com- 
munication that has since grown into the Chesapeake and 
Ohio Canal, and into the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 
During the three years preceding the meeting of the Fed- 



! 



17S5 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 229 

eral Convention he was largely occupied with this work. In 
1785 he became president of a company for extending the 
navigation of the Potomac and James rivers, and the legisla- 
ture of Virginia passed an act vesting him with one hundred 
and fifty shares in the stock of the company, in order to 
testify their "sense of his unexampled merits." But Wash- 
ington refused the testimonial, and declined to take ^.^^ ^^^. 
any pay for his services, because he wished to sighted 

1 1 1 1- • 1 • r 1 genius and 

arouse the people to the political importance of the seif-devo- 
undertaking, and felt that his words would have 
more weight if he were known to have no selfish interest 
in it. His sole purpose, as he repeatedly said, was to 
strengthen the spirit of union by cementing the eastern and 
western regions together. At this time he could ill afford 
to give his services without pay, for his long absence in war- 
time had sadly impaired his estate. But such was Wash- 
ington. 

In order to carry out the enterprise of extending the 
navigation of the Potomac, it became necessary for the two 
states Virginia and Maryland to act in concert ; Maryland 
and early in 1785 a joint commission of the two ^"h^^yir- 
states met for consultation at Washington's house ginia re- 

• • -I • garding tlie 

at Mount Vernon. A compact insuring harmoni- navigation 

.... 1 1 ii . . of the Po- 

ous cooperation was prepared by the commission- tomac, 
ers ; and then, as Washington's scheme involved ^''^5 
the connection of the head waters of the Potomac with 
those of the Ohio, it was found necessary to invite Pennsyl- 
vania to become a party to the compact. Then Washington 
took the occasion to suggest that Maryland and Virginia, 
while they were about it, should agree upon a uniform sys- 
tem of duties and other commercial regulations, and upon 
a uniform currency ; and these suggestions were sent, to- 
gether with the compact, to the legislatures of the two 
states. Great things were destined to come from these 
modest beginnings. Just as in the Yorktown campaign, 
there had come into existence a multifarious assemblage of 
events, apparently unconnected with one another, and all 



230 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

that was needed was the impulse given by Washington's far- 
sighted genius to set them all at work, surging, swelling, 
and hurrying straight forward to a decisive result. 

Late in 1785, when the Virginia legislature had wrangled 
itself into imbecility over the question of clothing Congress 
Madison's with powcr ovcr trade, Madison hit upon an expe- 
^epTnid- dient. He prepared a motion to the effect that 
vance, 17S5 commissioners from all the states should hold a 
meeting, and discuss the best method of securing a uniform 
treatment of commercial questions ; but as he was most con- 
spicuous among the advocates of a more perfect union, he 
was careful not to present the motion himself. It was made 
by another member — John Tyler, father of the president 
of that name, a sturdy champion of state rights, but on this 
particular question agreeing with Madison. ^ The plan, how- 
ever, was " so little acceptable that it was not then persisted 
in," and the motion was laid on the table. But after some 
weeks it was announced that Maryland had adopted the 
compact made at Mount Vernon concerning jurisdiction 
over the Potomac. Virginia instantly replied by adopting it 
also. Then it was suggested, in the report from Maryland, 
that Delaware, as well as Pennsylvania, ought to be con- 
sulted, since the scheme should rightly include a canal 
between the Delaware River and the Chesapeake Bay. 
And why not also consult with these states about a uniform 
system of duties .'' If two states can agree upon these mat- 
ters, why not four ? And still further, said the Maryland 
message, — dropping the weightiest part of the proposal 
into a subordinate clause, just as women are said to put the 
quintessence of their letters into the postscript, — might it 
not be well enough, if we are going to have such a confer- 
ence, to invite commissioners from all the thirteen states to 
attend it .'' An informal discussion can hurt nobody. The 
conference of itself can settle nothing ; and if four states 
can take part in it, why not thirteen .-' Here was the golden 

^ See L. G. Tyler, Letters and Times of the Tylers, Richmond, 1884, 
i. 125-134. 



1786 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 231 

opportunity. The Madison-Tyler motion was taken up from 
the table and carried. Commissioners from all the states 
were invited to meet on the first Monday of September, 
1786, at Annapolis,— a safe place, far removed from the 
influence of that dread tyrant, the Congress, and from 







icked centres of trade, such as New York and Boston. 

t was the governor of Virginia who sent the invitations. It 
may not amount to much, wrote Madison to Monroe, but 
" the expedient is better than nothing ; and, as the recom- 



232 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

mendation of additional powers to Congress is within the 
purview of the commission, it may possibly lead to better 
consequences than at first occur." 

The seed dropped by Washington had fallen on fruitful 
soil. At first it was to be just a little meeting of two or 
three states to talk about the Potomac River and some pro- 
jected canals, and already it had come to be a meeting of all 
the states to discuss some uniform system of legislation on 
Convention the subjcct of trade. This looked Hke progress, 
Us^ept'^" yet when the convention was gathered in the 
11,1786 State House at Annapolis, on the nth of Septem- 
ber, the outlook was most discouraging. Commissioners 
from Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 
New York were present. Massachusetts and New Hamp- 
shire, Rhode Island and North Carolina, had duly appointed 
commissioners, but they were not there. It is curious to 
observe that Maryland, which had been so earnest in the 
matter, had nevertheless now neglected to appoint commis- 
sioners ; and no action had been taken by Georgia, South 
Carolina, or Connecticut. With only five states represented, 
the commissioners did not think it worth while to go on 
with their work. But before adjourning they adopted an 
address, written by Alexander Hamilton, and sent it to all 
the states. All the commissioners present had been em- 
powered to consider how far a uniform commercial system 
might be essential to the permanent harmony of the states. 
But New Jersey had taken a step in advance, and instructed 
her delegates " to consider how far a uniform system in their 
commercial regulations and other important matters might 
be necessary to the common interest and permanent har- 
mony of the several states." And other important matters, 
— thus again was the weightiest part of the business rele 
gated to a subordinate clause. So gingerly was the gre 
question — so dreaded, yet so inevitable — approache 
This reference to " other matters " was pronounced by th' 
commissioners to be a vast improvement on the original 
plan; and Hamilton's address now urged that commissioners 




1786 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 



233 




INVAI'OMS S I A 1 I. Ill H:M' 



be appointed by all the states, to meet in convention at 
Philadelphia on the second Monday of the follow- „ ., 

^ , ^ . . Hamilton's 

ing May, " to devise such further provisions as address ; 
shall appear to them necessary to render the con- step^n '^ 
stitution of the federal government adequate to the ^^^^"^^ 
exigencies of the Union, and to report to Congress such 
an act as, when agreed to by them, and confirmed by the 
legislatures of every state, would effectually provide for 
the same." The report of the commissioners was brought 
before Congress in October, in the hope that Congress 
would earnestly recommend to the several states the course 
of action therein suggested. But Nathan Dane and Rufus 
King of Massachusetts, intent upon technicalities, succeeded 
in preventing this. According to King, a convention was 
an irregular body, which had no right to propose changes in 



234 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 



CHAP. V 



the organic law of the land, and the state legislatures could 
not properly confirm the acts of such a body, or take notice 
of them. Congress was the only source from which such 
proposals could properly emanate. These arguments were 
pleasing to the self-love of Congress, and it refused to sanc- 
tion the plan of the Annapolis commissioners. 

In an ordinary season this would perhaps have ended the 




-■^ v 



yL^-^^^ 



^Oy^n^^ 



matter, but the winter of 1786-87 was not an ordinary 
season. All the troubles above described seemed to cul- 
minate just at this moment. The paper money craze in so 
many of the states, the shameful deeds of Rhode Island, the 
riots in Vermont and New Hamsphire, the Shays rebellion in 
Massachusetts, the dispute with Spain, and the consequent 
imminent danger of separation between north and south had 
all come together ; and the feeling of thoughtful men and 
women throughout the country was one of real consternation. 
The last ounce was now to be put upon the camel's back in 



1786 GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 235 



^, g^i-t^va/ta^^ Js4Ut<.i^^^ /M <\'},l'' 



04 



/ _ 



Ci /•/'>-i 









/■;^ XCO^^f^^ 









. -y / 






> t •'-?•- 



PRESIDENT DICKINSON'S LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS 

the failure of the impost amendment. In 1783, when the 
cessions of western lands were creating a national New York 
domain, a promising plan had been devised for impost 
relieving the country of its load of debt, and fur- amendment 
nishing Congress with money for its current expenses. All 
the money coming from sales of the western folkland was to 
be applied to reducing and wiping out the principal of the 



236 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

public debt. Then the interest of this debt must be pro- 
vided for ; and to that end Congress had recommended an 
impost, or system of custom-house duties, upon liquors, 
sugars, teas, coffees, cocoa, molasses, and pepper. This 
impost was to be kept up for twenty-five years only, and the 
collectors were to be appointed by the several states, each 
for its own ports. Then for the current expenses of the 
government, supplementary funds were needed ; and these 
were to be assessed upon the several states, each of which 
might raise its quota as it saw fit. Such was the original 
plan ; but it soon turned out that the only available source 
of revenue was the national domain, which had thus been 
nothing less than the principal thread which had held the 
Union together. As for the impost, it had never been 
possible to get a sufficient number of states to agree upon 
it, and of the quotas for current expenses, as we have seen, 
very little had found its way to the federal treasury. Under 
these difficulties, it had been proposed that an amendment 
to the articles of confederation should endow Congress with 
the power of levying customs-duties and appointing the 
collectors ; and by the summer of 1786, after endless wran- 
gling, twelve states had consented to the amendment. But, 
in order that an amendment should be adopted, unanimous 
consent was necessary. The one delinquent state, which 
thus blocked the wheels of the confederacy, was New York. 
She had her little system of duties all nicely arranged for 
what seemed to be her own interests, and she would not 
surrender this system to Congress. Upon the neighbouring 
states her tariff system bore hard, and especially upon New 
Jersey. In 1786 this state flatly refused to pay her quota 
until New York should stop discriminating against her trade. 
Nothing which occurred in that troubled year caused more 
alarm than this, for it could not be denied that such a decla- 
ration seemed little less than an act of secession on the part 
of New Jersey. The arguments of a congressional com- 
mittee at last prevailed upon the state to rescind her decla- 
ration. At the same time there came the final struggle in 



1787 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 



237 



New York over the impost amendment, against which Gov- 
ernor Clinton had firmly set his face. There was a fierce 
fight, in which Hamilton's most strenuous efforts succeeded 
in carrying the amendment in part, but not until it had been 




JUjJtAy^ ^-rytf 



clogged with a condition that made it useless. Congress, it 
was declared, might have the revenue, but New York must 
appoint the collectors ; she was not going to have federal 
officials rummaging about her docks. The legislature well 
knew that to grant the amendment in such wise was not 
to grant it at all, but simply to reopen the whole question. 
Such was the result. Congress expostulated in vain. On 
the 15th of February, 1787, the matter was reconsidered in 
the New York legislature, and the impost amendment was 
defeated. 



238 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

Thus, only three months before the Federal Convention 
was to meet, if indeed it was ever to meet, Congress was 
decisively informed that it would not be allowed to take any 
effectual measures for raising a revenue. There now 
seemed nothing left for Congress to do but adopt the recom- 
mendation of the Annapolis commissioners, and give its 
sanction to the proposed convention. Madison, however, 
had not waited for this, but had prevailed upon the Virginia 
legislature to go on and appoint its delegates to the conven- 
tion. The events of the year had worked a change in the 
popular sentiment in Virginia ; people were more afraid of 
anarchy, and not quite so much afraid of centralization ; and 
now, under Madison's lead, Virginia played her trump card 
and chose George Washington as one of her delegates. As 
Sudden soon as this was known, there was an outburst of 
popufar'" joy throughout the land. All at once the people 
sentiment began everywhere to feel an interest in the pro- 
posed convention, and presently Massachusetts changed her 
attitude. Up to this time Massachusetts had been as obsti- 
nate in her assertion of local independence, and as unwilling 
to strengthen the hands of Congress, as any of the thirteen 
states, except New York and Rhode Island. But the Shays 
rebellion had served as a useful object-lesson. Part of the 
distress in Massachusetts could be traced to the inability of 
Congress to pay debts which it owed to her citizens. It was 
felt that the time had come when the question of a national 
revenue must be seriously considered. Every week saw 
fresh converts to the party which called for a stronger gov- 
ernment. Then came the news that Virginia had chosen 
delegates, and that Washington was one of them ; then that 
New Jersey had followed the example ; then that Pennsyl- 
vania, North Carolina, Delaware, had chosen delegates. It 
was time for Massachusetts to act, and Rufus King now 
brought the matter up in Congress. His scruples as to the 
legality of the proceeding had not changed, and accordingly 
he moved that Congress should of itself propose a conven- 
tion at Philadelphia, identical with the one which the Annap- 



178; GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 239 

olis commissioners had already recommended. The motion 
was carried, and in this way Congress formally approved 
and adopted what was going on. Massachusetts immedi- 
ately chose delegates, and was followed by New York. In 
April, Georgia and South Carolina followed suit. Connecti- 
cut and Maryland came on in May, and New Hampshire, 




OLD REAR VIEW OE li\ DEl'ENUENCE HALL 



somewhat tardily, in June. Of the thirteen states, Rhode 
Island alone refused to take any part in the proceedings. 

The convention held its meetings in that plain brick 
building in Philadelphia already immortalized as the place 
from which the Declaration of Independence was published 
to the world. The work which these men were ^j^^ p^^. 
undertaking was to determine whether that Decla- erai Con- 

^ vention 

ration had been for the blessing or the injury of meets at 
America and of mankind. That they had sue- piua, May 
ceeded in assembling here at all was somewhat ''^"^^' '^ ^ 
remarkable, when we think of the curious medley of inci- 



240 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 



dents that led to it. At no time in this distressed period 
would a frank and abrupt proposal for a convention to 
remodel the government have found favour. Such pro- 
posals, indeed, had been made, beginning with that of 
Pelatiah Webster in 1781, and they had all failed to break 
through the crust of a truly English conservatism and dread 
of centralized power. Now, through what some might have 
called a strange chapter of accidents, before the element of 
causal sequence in it all had become so manifest as it is to 
us to-day, this remarkable group of men had been brought 
together in a single room, while even yet but few of them 
realized how thoroughly and exhaustively reconstructive 
their work was to be. To most of them it was not clear 
whether they were going merely to patch up the articles of 
confederation, or to strike out into a new and very different 
path. There were a few who entertained far-reaching pur- 
poses ; the rest were intelligent critics rather than construc- 
tive thinkers ; the result was surprising to all. It is worth 
our while to pause for a moment, and observe the character 
and composition of one of the most memorable assemblies 
the world has ever seen. Mr. Gladstone has said that just 
"as the British Constitution is the most subtle organism 
which has proceeded from progressive history, so the Ameri- 
can Constitution is the most wonderful work ever struck off 
at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." It would 
be in the highest degree erroneous, however, to suppose 
that the Constitution of the United States is not, as much 
as any other, an instance of evolution from precedents. It 
is in that very fact that its excellence largely consists. 

Let us now see who the men were who did this wonder- 
ful work, — this Iliad, or Parthenon, or Fifth Symphony, 
of statesmanship. We shall not find that they were all 
great geniuses. Such is never the case in such an assembly. 
There are not enough great geniuses to go around ; and 
if there were, it is questionable if the result would be satis- 
factory. In such discussions the points which impress the 
more ordinary and less far-sighted members are sure to have 



1787 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 



241 



great value ; especially when we bear in mind that the 
object of such an assembly is not merely to elaborate a plan, 
but to get the great mass of people, including the brick- 
layers and hod-carriers, to understand it well enough to vote 
for it. An ideally perfect assembly of law-makers will there- 
fore contain two or three men of original constructive 
genius, two or three leading spirits eminent for shrewdness 




^.^,^^^7^^^. ^^^ty^^^ 



and tact, a dozen or more excellent critics representing vari- 
ous conflicting interests, and a rank and file of thoroughly 
respectable, commonplace men, unfitted for shining in the 
work of the meeting, but admirably competent to proclaim 
its results and get their friends and neighbours to adopt 
them. And in such an assembly, even if it be such as we 
call ideally perfect, we must allow something for the pre- 



242 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

sence of a few hot-headed and irreconcilable members, — 
men of inflexible mind, who cannot adapt themselves to cir- 
cumstances, and will refuse to play when they see the game 
going against them. 

All these points are well illustrated in the assemblage of 
men that framed our Federal Constitution. In its composi- 
tion, this group of men left nothing to be desired. In its 
strength and in its weakness, it was an ideally perfect assem- 
Th men ^^^^ '^^^^^ wcrc fifty-fivc men, all of them respect- 
who were able for family and for personal qualities, — men 
who had been well educated, and had done some- 
thing whereby to earn recognition in those troubled times. 
Twenty-nine were university men, graduates of Harvard, 
Yale, Columbia, Princeton, William and Mary, Oxford, 
Glasgow, and Edinburgh. Twenty-six were not university 
men, and among these were Washington and Franklin. Of 
the illustrious citizens who, for their public services, would 
naturally have been here, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson 
were in Europe ; Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Rich- 
ard Henry Lee disapproved of the convention, and remained 
at home ; and the greatest man of Rhode Island, Nathanael 
Greene, who — one likes to think — might have succeeded 
in bringing his state into the convention, had lately died of 
a sun-stroke, at the early age of forty-four. 

Of the two most famous men present little need be said. 
The names of Washington and Franklin stood for supreme 
intelligence and consummate tact. Franklin had returned 
to this country two years before, and was now president of 
Pennsylvania. He was eighty-one years of age, the oldest 
man in the convention, as Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey, 
aged twenty-six, was the youngest. The two most profound 
and original thinkers in the company were but little older 
than Dayton. Alexander Hamilton was thirty, James Madi- 
son thirty-six. Among political writers, these two men may 
be ranked in the same order with Aristotle, Montesquieu, 
and Locke ; and the " Federalist," their joint production, is 
one of the greatest treatises on government ever written. 



1787 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 



H3 



John Jay, who contributed a few pages to this immortal 
volume, had not been sent to the convention, because New 
York did not wish to have it succeed. Along with Hamilton, 
New York sent two commonplace men, Robert Yates and 
John Lansing, who were extreme and obstinate Antifederal- 
ists; and the action of Hamilton, who was thus prevented 




^^^ 



-^^^i^ 



from carrying the vote of his own state for any measure 
which he might propose, was in this way sadly embarrassed. 
For another reason, Hamilton failed to exert as much influ- 
ence in the convention as one would have expected from his 
profound thought and his brilliant eloquence. Scarcely any 
of these men entertained what we should now call extreme 
democratic views. Scarcely any, perhaps, had that intense 
faith in the ultimate good sense of the people which was the 
most powerful characteristic of Jefferson. But Hamilton 



244 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 



went to the other extreme, and expressed his distrust of 
popular government too plainly. His views were too aristo- 
cratic and his preference for centralization was too pro- 
nounced to carry conviction to his hearers. 

The leading part in the convention fell, therefore, to 
James Madison, a young man somewhat less brilliant than 
James Hamilton, but superior to him in sobriety and 

Madison balance of powers. Madison used to be called the 
" Father of the Constitution," and it is true that the govern- 
ment under which we live is more his work than that of any 
other one man. From early youth his life had been devoted 
to the study of history and the practice of statesmanship. 
He was a graduate of Princeton College, an earnest student, 
familiar with all the best literature of political science from 
Aristotle down to his own time, and he had given especial 
attention to the history of federal government in ancient 
Greece, and in Switzerland and Holland. At the age of 
twenty-five he had taken part in the Virginia convention 
which instructed the delegates from that state in Congress 
to bring forward the Declaration of Independence. During 
the last part of the war he was an active and influential 
member of Congress, where no one equalled or approached 
him for knowledge of English history and constitutional 
law. In 1784 he had returned to the Virginia legislature, 
and been foremost in securing the passage of the great act 
which gave complete religious freedom to the people of that 
state. No man understood better than he the causes of the 
alarming weakness of the federal government, and of the 
commercial disturbances and popular discontent of the time ; 
nor had any one worked more zealously or more adroitly in 
bringing about the meeting of this convention. As he stood 
here now, a leader in the debate, there was nothing grand or 
imposing in his appearance. He was small of stature and 
slight in frame, like Hamilton, but he had none of Hamilton's 
personal magnetism. His manner was shy and prim, and 
blushes came often to his cheeks. At the same time, he 
had that rare dignity of unconscious simplicity which charac- 



1787 (^rERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 245 

terizes the earnest and disinterested scholar. He was 
exceedingly sweet-tempered, generous, and kind, but very 
hard to move from a path which, after long reflection, he 
had decided to be the right one. He looked at politics 
judicially, and was so little of a party man that on several 
occasions he was accused quite wrongfully of gross inconsist- 
ency. The position of leadership, which he won so early 




JAMES MADISON 



and kept so long, he held by sheer force of giant intelli- 
gence, sleepless industry, and an integrity which no man 
ever doubted. But he was above all things a man of 
peace. When in after years, as president of the United 
States, he was called upon to manage a great war, he was 
out of place, and his reputation for supreme ability was tern- 



246 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

porarily lowered. Here in the Federal Convention we are 
introduced to him at the noblest and most useful moment of 
his life. 

Of the fifty-five men here assembled, Washington, Frank- 
lin, Hamilton, and Madison were of the first order of ability. 
Many others in the room were gentlemen of more than 
^ ordinary talent and culture. There was John 

leading Dickinsou, who had moved from Pennsylvania into 
Delaware, and now came to defend the equal rights 
of the smaller states. There was James Wilson of Pennsyl- 
vania, born and educated in Scotland, one of the most 
learned jurists this country has ever seen. Beside him sat 
the financier, Robert Morris, and his namesake Gouverneur 
Morris of Morrisania, near the city of New York, the origi- 
nator of our decimal currency, and one of the far-sighted 
projectors of the Erie Canal. Then there was John Rutledge 
of South Carolina, who ever since the Stamp Act Congress 
had been the mainstay of his state ; and with him were the 
two able and gallant Pinckneys. Caleb Strong, afterward 
ten times governor of Massachusetts, was a typical Puri- 
tan, hard-headed and sensible ; his colleague, Rufus King, 
already distinguished for his opposition to negro slavery, was 
a man of brilliant attainments. And there were George 
Wythe, the learned chancellor of Virginia, and Daniel Car- 
roll of Maryland, who had played a prominent part in the 
events which led to the creation of a national domain. 
Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, afterward chief justice of 
the United States, was one of the ablest lawyers of his time ; 
with him were Roger Sherman and William Johnson, the 
latter a Fellow of the Royal Society, and afterward president 
of Columbia College. The New Jersey delegation, consist- 
ing of William Livingston, David Brearley, William Paterson, 
and Jonathan Dayton, was a strong one ; and as to New 
Hampshire, it is enough to mention the name of John 
Langdon. Besides all these there were some twenty of less 
mark, men who said little, but listened and voted. And 
then there were the irreconcilables, Yates and Lansing, the 



1787 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 



247 



two Antifederalists from New York ; and four men of much 
greater ability, who took an important part in the proceed- 
ings, but could not be induced to accept the result. These 
four were Luther Martin of Maryland ; George Mason and 
Edmund Randolph of Virginia ; and Elbridge Gerry of 
Massachusetts. 

When these men had assembled in Independence Hall, 
they chose George Washington president of the convention. 




^.^'''p^ 



The doors were locked, and an injunction of strict secrecy 
was put upon every one. The results of their work were 
known in the following September, when the draft of the 
Federal Constitution was published. But just what was 
said and done in this secret conclave was not revealed until 
fifty years had passed, and the aged James Madison, the last 



24^ THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, v 

survivor of those who sat there, had been gathered to his 
fathers. He kept a journal of the proceedings, which was 
pubHshed after his death, and upon the interesting story told 
in that journal we have now to enter. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

The Federal Convention did wisely in withholding its 
debates from the knowledge of the people. It was felt that 
discussion would be more untrammelled, and that its result 
ought to go before the country as the collective and unani- 
mous voice of the convention. There was likely to be 
wrangling enough among themselves ; but should their 
scheme be unfolded, bit by bit, before its parts could be 
viewed in their mutual relations, popular excitement would 
become intense, there might be riots, and an end would be 
put to that attitude of mental repose so necessary for the 
constructive work that was to be done. It was thought best 
that the scheme should be put forth as a completed whole, 
and that for several years, even, until the new system of gov- 
ernment should have had a fair trial, the traces of the indi- 
vidual theories and preferences concerned in its formation 
should not be revealed. For it was generally as- Difficult 
sumed that a system of government new in some befc^reThe 
important respects would be proposed by the con- convention 
vention, and while the people awaited the result the wildest 
speculations and rumours were current. A few hoped, and 
many feared, that some scheme of monarchy would be estab- 
lished. Such surmises found their way across the ocean, 
and hopes were expressed in England that, should a king 
be chosen, it might be a younger son of George III. It 
was even hinted, with alarm, that, through gratitude to our 
recent allies, we might be persuaded to offer the crown to 
some member of the royal family of France. No such 
thoughts were entertained, however, by any person present 
in the convention. Some of the delegates came with the 



250 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

design of simply amending the articles of confederation by 
taking away from the states the power of regulating com- 
merce, and intrusting this power to Congress. Others felt 
that if the work were not done thoroughly now another 
chance might never be offered ; and these men thought it 
necessary to abolish the confederation, and establish a fed- 
eral republic, in which the general government should act 
directly upon the people. The difficult problem was how 
to frame a plan of this sort which people could be made to 
understand and adopt. At the outset, before the conven- 
tion had been called to order, some of the delegates began 
to exhibit symptoms of that peculiar kind of moral coward- 
ice which is wont to afflict free governments, and of which 
American history furnishes so many instructive examples. 
In an informal discussion it was suggested that palliatives 
and half measures would be far more likely to find favour 
with the people than any thorough-going reform, when 
Washington suddenly interposed with a brief but immortal 
speech, which ought to be blazoned in letters of gold, and 
posted on the wall of every American assembly that shall 
meet to nominate a candidate, or declare a policy, or pass a 
law, so long as the weakness of human nature shall endure. 
Washing- In toucs unwoutcdly solemn he exclaimed, " It is 
solemn ^°^ probablc that no plan we propose will be 
appeal adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to 

be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we 
ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our 
work .'' Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the 
honest can repair ; the event is in the hand of God." 

This noble outburst carried conviction to every one, and 
henceforth we do not hear that any attempt was avowedly 
made to avoid the issues as they came up. It was a whole- 
some tonic. It braced up the convention to high resolves, 
and impressed upon all the delegates that they were in a 
situation where faltering or trifling was both wicked and 
dangerous. From that moment the mood in which they 
worked caught something from the glorious spirit of Wash- 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



251 



ington. There was need of such high purpose, for two 
plans were presently laid before the meeting, which, for a 
moment, brought out one of the chief elements of antago- 
nism existing between the states, and which at first seemed 
irreconcilable. It was the happy compromise which united 
and harmonized these two plans that smoothed the further 
work of the convention, and made it possible for a stable 
and powerful government to be constructed. 

The first of these plans was known as the Virginia plan. 




GEORGE WASHINGTON 



It was agreed upon in a committee of the delegates of that 
state, and was brought forward by Edmund Randolph, gov- 
ernor of Virginia, in the name of the state, but its chief 
author was Madison. It struck instantly at the root of the 
difficulties under which the country had been staggering 
ever since the Declaration of Independence. The federal 
government had possessed no means of enforcing 
obedience to its laws. Its edicts were without a of all the 
sanction ; and this was because they operated 
upon states, and not upon individuals. When an individual 



252 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

defies the law, you can lock him up in jail, or levy an execu- 
tion upon his property. The immense force of the commu- 
nity is arrayed against him, and he is as helpless as a straw 
on the billows of the ocean. He cannot raise a militia to 
protect himself. But when the law is defied by a state, it is 
quite otherwise. You cannot put a state into jail, nor seize 
its goods ; you can only make war on it, and if you try that 
expedient you find that the state is not helpless. Its local 
pride and prejudices are aroused against you, and its militia 
will turn out in full force to uphold the infraction of law. 
Against this obstinate and exasperated military force what 
superior force can you bring .-' Under some rare combina- 
tion of circumstances you might get the military force of 
several of the other states ; but ordinarily, when what you 
are trying to do is simply to enforce every-day laws, and 
when you simply represent a distrusted general government 
in conflict with a local government, you cannot do this. 
The other states will sympathize with the delinquent states ; 
they will feel that the very same condition of things which 
leads you to attack that state to-day will lead you to attack 
some other state to-morrow. Hence you cannot get any 
military help, and you are powerless. 

Such was the case with the Continental Congress. A 
novel and distrusted institution, it was called upon to enforce 
its laws upon long-established communities, full of sturdy 
independence and obstinate local prejudices. It was able to 
act, though with clumsy slowness, as long as there was an 
enemy in the field who was even more dreaded. But as 
soon as this enemy had been beaten out of sight it could 
not act at all. This had been because it did not represent 
the American people, but only the American states. The 
vital force which moved it was not the resistless force of a 
whole people, but only a shadowy semblance of force, de- 
rived from a theoretical consent of thirteen corporate bodies, 
which in their corporate capacity could never be compelled 
to agree about anything under the sun ; and unless com- 
pelled they would not agree. Four years of disturbance in 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



253 



every part of the country, in the course of which troops had 
been called out in several states, and civil war had been nar- 
rowly averted at least half a dozen times, had proved this 
beyond all cavil. With almost any other people than the 
Americans civil war would have come already. With all 





^ 




the vast future interests that were involved in these quarrels 
looming up before their keen, sagacious minds, it was a 
wonder that they had been kept from coming to blows. 
Such self-restraint had been greatly to their credit. It was 
the blessed fruit of more than a century of government by 
free discussion, while yet these states were colonies, peopled 
by the very cream of English freemen who had fought the 
decisive battle of civil and religious freedom for mankind 
in that long crisis when the Invincible Armada was over- 
whelmed and the Long Parliament won its triumphs. Such 
self-restraint had this people shown in days of trial, under a 



254 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

vicious government adopted in a time of hurry and sore dis- 
tress. But late events had gone far to show that it could 
not endure. 

The words of Randolph's opening speech are worth quot- 
ing in this connection. "The confederation," he said, "was 
made in the infancy of the science of constitutions, when 
the inefficiency of requisitions was unknown ; when no com- 
mercial discord had arisen among states ; when no rebellion 
like that in Massachusetts had broken out ; when foreign 
debts were not urgent ; when the havoc of paper money 
had not been foreseen; when treaties had not been vio- 
lated ; and when nothing better could have been conceded 
by states jealous of their sovereignty. But it offered no 
security against foreign invasion, for Congress could neither 
prevent nor conduct a war, nor punish infractions of treaties 
or of the law of nations, nor control particular states from 
provoking war. The federal government has no constitu- 
tional power to check a quarrel between separate states ; 
nor to suppress a rebellion in any one of them ; nor to 
establish a productive impost ; nor to counteract the com- 
mercial regulations of other nations ; nor to defend itself 
against the encroachments of the states. From the manner 
in which it has been ratified in many of the states, it cannot 
be claimed to be paramount to the state constitutions ; so 
that there is a prospect of anarchy from the inherent laxity 
of the government. As the remedy, the government to be 
established must have for its basis the republican principle." 

Having thus tersely stated the whole problem, Randolph 
went on to present the Virginia plan. To make the federal 
government operate directly upon individuals, one provision 
The vir- was absolutcly necessary. It did not solve the 
a'radicar ' wholc problem, but it was an indispensable begin- 
cure ning. This was the proposal that there should be 

a national legislature, in which the American people instead 
of the American states should be represented. For the 
purposes of federal legislation, there must be an assembly 
elected directly by the people, and with its members appor- 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



255 



tioned according to population. There must be such an 
assembly as our present House of Representatives, standing 
in the same immediate relation to the people of the whole 
country as was sustained by the assembly of each separate 




^.•£.^A^ 



state to the people of that state. Without such direct re- 
presentation of the whole people in the Federal Congress, it 
would be impossible to achieve one secure step toward the 
radical reform of the weaknesses and vices of the confedera- 
tion. It was the only way in which the vexed question of 
one nation or thirteen could be made to yield a satisfactory 
answer. At the same time it could not be denied that such 
a proposal was revolutionary in character. It paved the way 
for a national consolidation which might go further than any 



256 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

..one could foresee, and much further than was desirable. 
The moribund Congress of the Confederation, with its dele- 
gates chosen by the state assemblies, and casting its vote 
simply by states, had utterly failed to serve as a national 
legislature. There was a good deal of truth in what John 
Adams once said of it, that it was more a diplomatic than 
a legislative body. It was, indeed, because of this con- 
sciously felt diplomatic character that it was called a Con- 
gress, and not a Parliament. In its lack of coercive power 
it resembled the international congresses of Europe rather 
than the supreme legislature of any country. To substitute 
abruptly for such a body a truly national legislature, based 
not upon states but upon population, was quietly to inaugu- 
rate a revolution of no less magnitude than that which had 
lately severed us from Great Britain. So bold a step, while 
all-essential in order to complete that revolution, and make 
its victorious issue fortunate instead of disastrous to the 
American people, was sufficiently revolutionary to awaken 
the fears of many members of the Federal Convention. To 
the familiar state governments which had so long possessed 
their love and allegiance, it was superadding a new and 
untried government, which it was feared would swallow up 
the states and everywhere extinguish local independence. 
Nor can it be said that such fears were unreasonable. Our 
federal government has indeed shown a strong tendency to 
encroach upon the province of the state governments, espe- 
cially since our late Civil War. Too much centralization is 
our danger to-day, as the weakness of the federal tie was 
our danger a century ago. The rule of the Federalist party 
was needed in 1789 as the rule of the Republican party was 
needed in 1861, to put a curb upon the centrifugal tenden- 
cies. But after Federalism had fairly done its great work, 
at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was well that 
the administration of our national affairs should pass into 
the hands of the party to which Thomas Jefferson and 
Samuel Adams belonged, and which Madison, in his calm 
statesmanlike wisdom, had come to join. And now thatj 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



257 



in our own day, the disruptive forces have been even more 
thoroughly and effectually overcome, it is time for the prin- 
ciples of that party to be reasserted with fresh emphasis. 
If the day should ever arrive (which God forbid !) when 
the people of the different parts of our country shall allow 
their local affairs to be administered by prefects sent from 
Washington, and when the self-government of the states 




shall have been so far lost as that of the departments of 
France, or even so closely limited as that of the counties 
of England, — on that day the political career of the Ameri- 
can people will have been robbed of its most interesting and 
valuable features, and the usefulness of this nation will be 
lamentably impaired. 

I do not think that the historian writing at the present 
day need fear any such direful calamity, for the past century 
has shown most instructively how, in such a society as ours, 
the sense of political dangers slowly makes its way through 



258 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

the whole mass of the people, until movements at length are 
made to avert them, and the pendulum swings in the opposite 
direction. The history of political parties in the United 
States is especially rich in lessons of this sort. Compared 
with the statesmen of the Federal Convention, we are at a 
great advantage in studying this question of national consoli- 
dation ; and we have no excuse for failing to comprehend the 
attitude of the men who dreaded the creation of a national 
legislature as the entering wedge which would by and by rend 
asunder the structure of our liberties. The great mind of 
Madison was one of the first to entertain distinctly the noble 
conception of two kinds of government operating at one and 
the same time upon the same individuals, harmonious with 
each other, but each supreme in its own sphere. Such is the 
fundamental conception of our partly federal, partly national, 
government, which appears throughout the Virginia plan as 
well as in the Constitution which grew out of it. It was a 
political conception of a higher order than had ever before 
been entertained ; it took a great deal of discussion to make 
it clear to the minds of the delegates generally ; and the 
struggle over this initial measure of a national legislature 
was so bitter as to come near breaking up the convention. 

In its original shape the Virginia plan went much further 
toward national consolidation than the Constitution as 
adopted. The reaction against the evils of the loose-jointed 
confederation, which Randolph so ably summed up, was 
extreme. According to the Virginia plan, the national legis- 
lature was to be composed of two houses, like the legisla- 
tures of the several states. The members of the lower house 
should be chosen directly by the people ; members of the 
upper house, or Senate, should be elected by the lower 
house out of persons nominated by the state legislatures. 
In both the lower and the upper branches of this national 
legislature the votes were to be the votes of individuals, and 
no longer the votes of states, as in the Continental Con- 
gress. Under the articles of confederation each state had 
an equal vote, and two thirds were required for many of the 



1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 259 

most important measures. Under the proposed Constitution 
each state was to have a number of representatives propor- 
tionate either to its wealth or to the number of its free in- 
habitants, and a bare majority of votes was to suffice to pass 
all measures in the ordinary course of business ; and these 
rules were to apply both to the lower house and to the 
Senate. To adopt such a plan would overthrow the equality 
of the states altogether. It would give Virginia, the great- 
est state, sixteen representatives, where Georgia, the smallest 
state, had but one ; and besides, as the votes were no longer 
to be taken by states, individual members could combine in 
any way they pleased, quite irrespective of state lines. It 
was not strange that to many delegates in the convention 
such a beginning should have seemed revolutionary. This 
impression was deepened when it was further proposed not 
only to clothe this national legislature with original powers 
of legislation in all cases to which the several states are 
incompetent, but also to allow it to set aside at discretion 
such state laws as it might deem unconstitutional. It is 
interesting to find Madison, whose Federalism afterward 
came to be so moderate, now appearing as th^/ earnest de- 
fender of this extreme provision, soipcompatible with state 
rights. But in Madison's mind at this moment, in the actual 
presence of the anarchy of the confederation, the only alter- 
native which seemed to present itself was that of armed 
coercion. " A negative on state laws," he said, " is the mild- 
est expedient that can be devised for enforcing a national 
decree. Should no such precaution be engrafted, the only 
remedy would be coercion. The negative would render the 
use of force unnecessary. This prerogative of the general 
government is the great pervading principle that must con- 
trol the centrifugal tendency of the states, which, without it, 
will continually fly out of their proper orbits, and destroy the 
order and harmony of the political system." But these views 
were not destined to find favour with the convention, which 
finally left the matter to be much more satisfactorily ad- 
justed through the medium of the federal judiciary. 



26o THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

Such were the fundamental provisions of the Virginia plan 
with regard to the national legislature. To carry out the 
laws, it was proposed that there should be a national execu- 
tive, to be chosen by the national legislature for a short 
term, and ineligible a second time. Whether the executive 
power should be invested in a single person or in several was 
not specified. As will be seen hereafter, this was regarded 
as an extremely delicate point, with which it was thought 
best not to embarrass the Virginia plan at the outset. Pass- 
ing lightly over this, it was urged that, in order to complete 
the action of the government ujoon individuals, there must 
be a national judiciary to determine cases arising under the 
Constitution, cases in admiralty, and cases in which different 
states or their citizens appear as parties. The judges were 
to be chosen by the national legislature, to hold office during 
good behaviour. 

Such, in its main outlines, was the plan which Randolph 
First recep- laid before the convention, in the name of the 
v°^g°nia^^ Virginia delegation. An audacious scheme ! ex- 
P^^" claimed some of the delegates ; it was enough to 

take your breath away. If they were going to begin like 
this, they might as well go home, for all discussion would 
be time wasted. They were not sent there to set on foot a 
revolution, but to amend and strengthen the articles of con- 
federation. But this audacious plan simply abolished the 
Confederation in order to substitute for it a consolidated 
national government. Foremost in urging this objection 
were Yates and Lansing of New York, with Luther Martin 
of Maryland. Dickinson said it was pushing things alto- 
gether too far, and his colleague, George Read, hinted that 
the delegation from Delaware might feel obliged to withdraw 
from the convention if the election of representatives accord- 
ing to population should be adopted. By the tact of Madi- 
son and Gouverneur Morris this question was postponed 
for a few days. After some animated discussion, the issues 
became so narrowed and defined that they could be taken 
up one by one. It was first decided that the national 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



261 



legislature should consist of two branches. Then came a 
warm discussion as to whether the members of the lower 
house should be elected directly by the people. Curiously 
enough, in a country where the principle of popular election 
had long since taken such deep root, where the assemblies 
of the several states had been chosen by the people from 




^^c/' cJi^^y^^ 



the very beginning, there was some doubt as to whether the 
same principle could safely be applied to the national House 
of Representatives. Gerry, with his head full of the Shays 
rebellion and the " Know Ye " measures of the neighbour- 
ing state, thought the people could not be trusted. "The 
people do not want virtue," said he, "but are the dupes 
of pretended patriots." Roger Sherman took a similar view, 
and was supported by Martin, Rutledge, and both the 
Pinckneys ; but the sounder opinion prevailed. On this 
point Hamilton was at one with Mason, Wilson, and Dickin- 
son. The proposed assembly, said Mason, was to be, so 



262 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

to speak, our House of Commons, and ought to know and 
sympathize with every part of the community. It ought to 
have at heart the rights and interests of every class of the 
people, and in no other way could this end be so completely 
attained as by popular election. " Yes," added Wilson, 
" without the confidence of the people no government, least 
of all a republican government, can long subsist. . . . The 
election of the first branch by the people is not the cor- 
ner-stone only, but the foundation of the fabric." "It is 
essential to the democratic rights of the community," said 
Hamilton, " that the first branch be directly elected by the 
people." Madison argued powerfully on the same side, and 
the question was finally decided in favour of popular elec- 
tion. 

It was now the 4th of June, when the great question came 
up which nearly wrecked the convention before it was 
settled, after a whole month of stormy debate. This was 
the question as to how the states should be represented in 
Antag- ^^^ ^^^ Congress. On the Virginia plan, the 
onism be- smaller states would be virtually swamped. Unless 

tween large -^ ^ 

states and they could have equal votes, without regard to 
wealth or population, they would be at the mercy 
of the great states. In the division which ensued, the four 
most populous states — Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsyl- 
vania, and North Carolina — favoured the Virginia plan ; 
and they succeeded in carrying South Carolina with them. 
Georgia, too, which, though weak at that moment, possessed 
considerable room for expansion, voted upon the same side. 
On the other hand, the states of Connecticut, New Jersey, 
Delaware, and Maryland — which were not only small in area, 
but were cut off from further expansion by their geographi- 
cal situation — were not inclined to give up their equal vote 
in either branch of the national legislature. At this stage 
of the proceedings the delegation from New Hampshire had 
not yet arrived upon the scene. On several occasions the 
majority of the Maryland delegation went with the larger 
states, but Luther Martin, always opposed to the Virginia 



^?;fe^ 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



263 



plan, usually succeeded in dividing the vote of the delegation. 
Of the New York members, Yates and Lansing, here as 
always, thwarted Hamilton by voting with the smaller states. 
Their policy throughout was one of obstruction. The mem- 
bers from Connecticut were disposed to be conciliatory ; but 
New Jersey was obstinate and implacable. She knew what 
it was to be tyrannized over by powerful neighbours. The 
wrongs she had suffered from New York and Pennsylvania 
rankled in the minds of her delegates. 

Accordingly, in the name of the smaller states, William 





^ 




Paterson laid before the convention the so-called " New 
Jersey plan " for the amendment of the articles of -j.]^^ j^^^^ 
confederation. This scheme admitted a federal Jfsey 

plan ; 

legislature, consisting of a single house, an execu- a feeble 
tive in the form of a council to be chosen by Con- ^^ '^ '^'^ 
gress, and likewise a federal judiciary, with powers less 
extensive than those contemplated by the Virginia plan. 



264 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

It gave to Congress the power to regulate foreign and do- 
mestic commerce, to levy duties on imports, and even to 
raise internal revenue by means of a Stamp Act. But with 
all this apparent liberality on the surface, the New Jersey 
plan was vicious at bottom. It did not really give Congress 
the power to act immediately upon individuals. The federal 
legislature which it proposed was to represent states, and 
not individuals, and the states were to vote equally, without 
regard to wealth or population. If things were to be left in 
this shape, there was no security that the powers granted 
to Congress could ever be really exercised. Nay, it was 
almost certain that they could not be put into operation. 
It was easy enough on paper to give Congress the permis- 
sion to levy duties and regulate commerce, but such a per- 
mission would amount to nothing unless Congress were 
armed with the power of enforcing its decrees upon indi- 
viduals. And it could in no wise acquire such power unless 
as the creature of the people, and not of the states. The 
New Jersey plan, therefore, furnished no real remedy for 
the evils which afflicted the country. It was vigorously 
opposed by Hamilton, Madison, Wilson, and King. Hamil- 
ton, indeed, took this occasion to offer a plan of his own, 
which, in addition to Madison's scheme of a purely national 
legislature, contained the features of a tenure for life or 
good behaviour, for the executive and the members of the 
upper house. But to most of the delegates this scheme 
seemed too little removed from a monarchy, and Hamilton's 
brilliant speech in its favour, while applauded by many, was 
supported by none. The weighty arguments of Wilson, 
King, and Madison prevailed, and the New Jersey plan lost 
its original shape when it was decided that Congress should 
consist of two houses. The principle of equal state repre- 
sentation, however, remained as a stumbling-block. Pater- 
son, supported by his able colleague Brearley, as well as by 
Martin and the two irreconcilables from New York, stoutly 
maintained that to depart from this principle would be to 
exceed the powers of the convention, which assuredly was 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



265 



not intended to remodel the government from beginning to 
end. But Randolph answered, " When the salvation of the 
republic is at stake, it would be treason to our trust not 
to propose what we find necessary ; " and Hamilton pithily 
reminded the delegates that as they were there only for the 
purpose of recommending a scheme which would have to 
be submitted to the states for acceptance, they need not be 
deterred by any false scruples from using their wits to the 
best possible advantage. 

The debate on the merits of the question was an angry 
one. According to the Vir- 
ginia plan, said Brearley, the 
three states of Virginia, Mas- 
sachusetts, and Pennsylvania 
will carry everything before 
them. "It was known to him, 
from facts within New Jersey, 
that where large and small 
counties were united into a 
district for electing represen- 
tatives for the district, the 
large counties always carried 
their point, and consequently 
the large states would do so, 
. . . Was it fair, on the 
other hand, that 
should have an equal vote 

with Virginia ? He would not say it was. What remedy, 
then } One only : that a map of the United States be 
spread out, that all the existing boundaries be erased, and 
that a new partition of the whole be made into thirteen 
equal parts." "Yes," said Paterson, "a confederacy sup- 
poses sovereignty in the members composing it, and sover- 
eignty supposes equality. If we are to be considered as a 
nation, all state distinctions must be abolished, the whole 
must be thrown into hotchpot, and when an equal division is 
made then there may be fairly an equality of representa- 




Georgia / 



266 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

tion." This argument was repeated with a triumphant air, 
as seeming to reduce the Virginia plan to absurdity. Pater- 
son went on to say that " there was no more reason that a 
great individual state, contributing much, should have more 
votes than a small one, contributing little, than that a rich 
individual citizen should have more votes than an indigent 
one. If the ratable property of A was to that of B as forty 
to one, ought A, for that reason, to have forty times as many 
votes as B .'' . . . Give the large states an influence in pro- 
portion to their magnitude, and what will be the conse- 
quence ? Their ambition will be proportionally increased, 
and the small states will have everything to fear. It was 
once proposed by Galloway [in the first Continental Con- 
gress] that America should be represented in the British 
Parliament, and then be bound by its laws. America could 
not have been entitled to more than one third of the repre- 
sentatives which would fall to the share of Great Britain : 
would American rights and interests have been safe under 
an authority thus constituted .'' " Then, warming with the 
subject, he exclaimed, If the great states wish to unite on 
such a plan, "let them unite if they please, but let them 
remember that they have no authority to compel the others 
to unite. . . . Shall I submit the welfare of New Jersey 
with five votes in a council where Virginia has sixteen .''... 
I will never consent to the proposed plan. I will not only 
oppose it here, but on my return home will do everything 
in my power to defeat it there. Neither my state nor myself 
will ever submit to tyranny." 

Paterson was ably answered by James Wilson of Penn- 
sylvania, who pointed out the absurdity of giving 180,000 
men in one part of the country as much weight in the 
national legislature as 750,000 in another part. It is unjust, 
he said. " The gentleman from New Jersey is candid. He 
declares his opinions boldly. I commend him for it. I will 
be equally candid. ... I never will confederate on his 
principles." The convention grew nervous and excited over 
this seemingly irreconcilable antagonism. The discussion 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



267 



was kept up with much learning and acuteness by Madison, 
Ellsworth, and Martin, and history was ransacked for testi- 
mony from the Amphiktyonic Council to Old Sarum, and 
back again to the Lykian League. Madison, rightly reading 
the future, declared that if once the proposed union should 
be formed, the real danger would come not from the rivalry 
between large and small states, but from the antagonistic 
interests of the slaveholding and non-slaveholding states. 





Hamilton pointed out that in the state of New York five 
counties had a majority of the representatives, and yet the 
citizens of the other counties were in no danger of tyranny, 
as the laws have an equal operation upon all. Rufus King 
called attention to the fact that the rights of Scotland were 
secure from encroachments, although her representation in 
Parliament was necessarily smaller than that of England. 



268 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 



But New Jersey and Delaware, mindful of recent grievances, 
were not to be argued down or soothed. Gunning Bedford 
of Delaware was especially violent. " Pretences to support 
ambition," said he, "are never wanting. The cry is, Where 




PH!^ UO^ou^rry^ 



is the danger ? and it is insisted that although the powers of 
the general government will be increased, yet it will be for 
the good of the whole ; and although the three great states 
form nearly a majority of the people of America, they never 
will injure the lesser states. Gentlemen, I do v.ot trust 
yon. If you possess the power, the abuse of it could not 
be checked ; and what then would prevent you from exer- 
cising it to our destruction ? . . . Sooner than be ruined, 
tJiere are foreign powers %vJio will take ns by the hand. I 
say this not to threaten or intimidate, but that we should 
reflect seriously before we act." This language called forth 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



269 



a rebuke from Rufus King. " I am concerned," said he, 
" for what fell from the gentleman from Delaware, — take a 
foreign pozver by the hand ! I am sorry he mentioned it, 
and I hope he is able to excuse it to himself on the score 
of passion." 

The situation had become dangerous. "The convention," 
said Martin, " was on the verge of dissolution, scarce held 
together by the strength of a hair." When things were 




looking darkest, Oliver Ellsworth and Roger Sherman sug- 
gested a compromise. " Yes," said Franklin, " when a joiner 
wishes to fit two boards, he sometimes pares off a bit from 
both." The famous Connecticut compromise led the way 



270 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 



to the arrangement which was ultimately adopted, according 
to which the national principle was to prevail in the 

The Con- ^^ ^^ ^ . nirii 

necticut House of Representatives, and the lederal prin- 
compromise ^.^^^ .^ ^^^ Senate. But at first the compromise 

met with little favour. Neither party was willing to give 
way. " No compromise for us," said Luther Martin. '' You 
must give each state an equal suffrage, or our business is at 
an end." " Then we are come to a full stop," said Roger 
Sherman. " I suppose it was never meant that we should 
break up without doing something." When the question as 
to allowing equality of suffrage to the states in the Federal 
Senate was put to vote, the result was a tie. Connecticut, 
New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland — five 
states — voted in the affirmative ; Massachusetts, Pennsylva- 
nia, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina — five 
states — voted in the negative ; the vote of Georgia was 
divided and lost. It was Abraham Baldwin, a native of 
Connecticut and lately a tutor in Yale College, a recent 
emigrant to Georgia, who thus divided the vote of that state, 
and prevented a decision which would in all probability have 
broken up the convention. His state was the last to vote, 
and the house was hushed in anxious expectation, when this 
brave and wise young man yielded his private conviction to 
what he saw to be the paramount necessity of keeping the 
convention together. All honour to his memory ! 

The moral effect of the tie vote was in favour of the Con- 
necticut compromise ; for no one could doubt that the little 
states, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, had they been 
represented in the division, would have voted upon that side. 
The matter was referred to a committee as impartially con- 
stituted as possible, with Elbridge Gerry as chairman ; and 
on the 5th of July, after a recess of three days, the com- 
mittee reported in favour of the compromise. Fresh objec- 
tions on the part of the large states were now offered by 
Wilson and Gouverneur Morris, and gloom again overhung 
the convention. Gerry said that, while he did not fully 
approve of the compromise, he had nevertheless supported 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



271 



it, because he felt sure that if nothing were done war and 
confusion must ensue, the old confederation being already 
virtually at an end. George Mason observed that "it could 
not be more inconvenient for any gentleman to remain 




^%^^W/5^/-^ •-^^^?*-?*^ 



absent from his private affairs than it was for him ; but he 
would bury his bones in that city rather than expose his 
country to the consequences of a dissolution of the conven- 
tion." Mason's subsequent course was not quite in keeping 
with the promise of this brave speech, and in Gerry we shall 
observe a similar divergence. At present a timely speech 
from Madison soothed the troubled waters ; but it was only 



272 THL CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

after eleven days of somewhat more tranquil debate that the 
compromise was adopted on the i6th of July, Even then 
it was but narrowly secured. The ayes were Connecticut, 
New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina, — five 
states ; the noes were Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Caro- 
lina, and Georgia, — four states ; Gerry and Strong against 
King and Gorham divided the vote of Massachusetts, which 
was thus lost. New York, for reasons presently to be 
stated, was absent. It is accordingly to Elbridge Gerry and 
Caleb Strong that posterity are indebted for here prevent- 
ing a tie, and thus bringing the vexed question to a happy 
issue. 

According to the compromise secured with so much diffi- 
culty, it was arranged that in the lower house population was 
to be represented, and in the upper house the states, each of 
which, without regard to size, was forever to be entitled 
to two senators. In the lower house there was to be one 
representative for every 40,000 inhabitants, but at Washing- 
ton's suggestion the number was changed to 30,000, so as 
to increase the house, which then seemed likely to be too 
small in numbers. Some one suggested that with the growth 
of population that rate would make an unwieldy house within 
a hundred and fifty years from that time, whereat Gorham of 
Massachusetts laughed to scorn the idea that any system of 
government they could devise in that room could possibly 
last a hundred and fifty years. The difficulty has been sur- 
mounted by enlarging from time to time the basis of repre- 
sentation. It now seemed inadvisable that the senators 
should be chosen by the lower house out of persons nomi- 
nated by the state legislatures ; and it was accordingly 
decided that they should be not merely nominated, but 
elected, by the state legislatures. Thus the Senate was 
made quite independent of the lower house. At the same 
time, the senators were to vote as individuals, and thus the 
old practice of voting by states, except in certain peculiar 
emergencies, was finally done away with. ^ 

It is seldom, if ever, that a political compromise leaves 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



273 



things evenly balanced. Almost every such arrangement, 
when once set working, weighs down the scales decidedly 
to the one side or the other. The Connecticut compromise 
was really a decisive victory for Madison and his party, 
although it modified the Virginia plan so considerably. 
They could well afford to defer to the fears and prejudices 
of the smaller states in the structure of the Sen- j^ ^^^ ^ 
ate, for by securing a lower house, which repre- J^'^^'^J''^^^^ 
sented the American people, and not the American Madison's 
states, they won the whole battle in so far as the 
question of radically reforming the government was con- 
cerned. As soon as the foundation was thus laid for a 




GERRY'S HOUSE AT CAMBRIDGE 



government which should act directly upon individuals, it 
obviously became necessary to abandon the articles of con- 
federation, and work out a new constitution in all its details. 
The plan, as now reported, omitted the obnoxious adjective 
"national," and spoke of the federal legislature 3.nd federal 
courts. But to the men who were still blindly wedded to 
the old confederation this soothing change of phraseology 
did not conceal their defeat. On the very day that the 
compromise was favourably reported by the committee, 
Yates and Lansing quit the convention in disgust, and went 
home to New York. After the departure of these uncon- 



274 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

genial colleagues, Hamilton might have acted with power, 
had he not known too well that the sentiment of his state 
did not support him. As a mere individual he could do but 
little, and accordingly he went home for a while to attend 
to pressing business, returning just in time to take part in 
the closing scenes. His share in the work of 

Irreconcua- . *^ 

bies go framing the Federal Constitution was very small. 

About the time that Hamilton returned, Luther 
Martin, whose wrath had waxed hotter every day, as he saw 
power after power extended to the federal government, at 
length gave way and went back to Maryland, vowing that 
he would have nothing more to do with such high-handed 
proceedings. 

While the Connecticut compromise thus scattered a few 
scintillations of discontent, and relieved the convention of 
some of its most discordant elements, its general effect was 
wonderfully harmonizing. The men who had opposed the 
Virginia plan only through their dread of the larger states 
were now more than conciliated. The concession of equal 
representation in the Senate turned out to have been a mas- 
ter stroke of diplomacy. As soon as the little states were 
assured of an equal share in the control of one of the two 
central legislative bodies, they suddenly forgot their scruples 
about thoroughly overhauling the government, and none 
were readier than they to intrust extensive powers to the 
new Congress. Paterson of New Jersey, the fiercest oppo- 
nent of the Virginia plan, became from that time forth to 
the end of his life the most devoted of Federalists. 

That first step which proverbially gives the most trouble 
had now been fairly taken. But other compromises were 

needed before the work of construction could pro- 
tagonisms ; pcrly be Carried out. As the antagonism between 
dread of great and small states disappeared from the scene, 
the future other antagonisms appeared. It is worth noting 

that just for a moment there was revealed a glim- 
mering of jealousy and dread on the part of the eastern 
states toward those of which the foundations were laid in 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



275 



the northwestern territory. Many people in New England 
feared that their children would be drawn westward in such 
numbers as to create immense states beyond the Ohio ; and 
thus it was foreseen that the relative political weight of New 
England in the future would be diminished. To a certain 





K^yHjCi^L^iZZi^ 



extent this prediction has been justified by events, but 
Roger Sherman rightly maintained that it afforded no just 
grounds for dread. King and Gerry introduced a most 
illiberal and mischievous motion, that the total number of 
representatives from new states must never be allowed to 
exceed the total number from the original thirteen. Such 



276 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

an arrangement, which would surely have been enough to 
create that antagonism between east and west which it 
sought to forestall and avoid, was supported by Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut, with Delaware and Maryland ; but it 
was defeated by the combination of New Jersey with the four 
states south of Maryland. The ground was thus cleared for 
a very different kind of sectional antagonism, — that which, 
as Madison truly said, would prove the most deep-seated and 
enduring of all, — the antagonism between north and south. 
The first great struggle between the pro-slavery and anti- 
slavery parties began in the Federal Convention, 
nism be- and it rcsulted in the first two of the long series 
states and of compromiscs by which their repressible conflict 
was postponed until the north had waxed strong 
enough to confront the dreaded spectre of secession, and, 
summoning all its energies in one stupendous effort, exor- 
cise it forever. From 
this moment down to 
1865 we shall continu- 
ally be made to realize 
how the American peo- 
ple had entered into the 
shadow of the coming 

Civil War before they had fairly emerged from that of the 
Revolution ; and as we pass from scene to scene of the 
solemn story, we shall learn how to be forever grateful for 
the sudden and final clearing of the air wrought by that 
frightful storm which men not yet old can still so well 
remember. 

The first compromise related to the distribution of repre- 
sentatives between north and south. Was representation in 
the lower house of Congress to be proportioned to wealth, or 
to population ; and if the latter, were all the inhabitants, or 
only all the free inhabitants, to be counted ? It was soon 
agreed that wealth was difficult to reckon and population 
easy to count ; and to an extent sufficient for all ordinary 
purposes, population might serve as an index of wealth. A 



ty^^. 




1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 277 

State with 500,000 inhabitants would be in most cases richer 
than one with 400,000. In those days, when cities were 
few and small, this was approximately true. In our day it is 
not at all true. A state with large commercial and manu- 
facturing cities is sure to be much richer than a state in 
which the population is chiefly rural. The population of 
Massachusetts is somewhat smaller than that of Indiana ; 
but her aggregate wealth is more than double that of Indi- 
ana. Disparities like this, which do not trouble us to-day, 
would have troubled the Federal Convention. We no longer 
think it desirable to give political representation to wealth, 
or to anything but persons. We have become thoroughly 
democratic, but our great-grandfathers had not. To them it 
seemed quite essential that wealth should be represented as 
well as persons ; but they got over the main difficulty easily, 
because under the economic conditions of that time popula- 
tion could serve roughly as an index to wealth, and it was 
much easier to count noses than to assess the value of farms 
and stock. ^ 

But now there w^as in all the southern states, and in most 
of the northern, a peculiar species of collective existence, 
which might be described either as wealth or as 

. . Were slaves 

population. As human bemgs the slaves might be to be reek- 
described as population, but in the eye of the law sons or as'' 
they were chattels. In the northern states slavery <^'^^"^'s'' 
was rapidly disappearing, and the property in negroes was 
so small as to be hardly worth considering ; while south of 
Mason and Dixon's line this peculiar kind of property was 
the chief wealth of the states. But clearly, in apportioning 
representation, in sharing political power in the federal 
assembly, the same rule should have been applied impartially 
to all the states. At this point, Pierce Butler and Cotes- 
worth Pinckney of South Carolina insisted that slaves were 
part of the population, and as such must be counted in 
ascertaining the basis of representation. A fierce and com- 
plicated dispute ensued. The South Carolina proposal sug- 
gested a uniform rule, but it was one that would scarcely 



278 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 



CHAP. VI 



alter the political weight of the north, while it would vastly 
increase the weight of the south ; and it would increase it 
most in just the quarter where slavery was most deeply 
rooted. The power of South Carolina, as a member of the 
Union, would be doubled by such a measure. Hence the 

northern delegates main- 
tained that slaves, as 
chattels, ought no more 
to be reckoned as part 
of the population than 
houses or ships. " Has 
a man in Virginia," ex- 
claimed Paterson, " a 
number of votes in pro- 
portion to the number of 
his slaves .-' And if ne- 
groes are not represented 
in the states to which 
they belong, why should 
they be represented in 
the general government ? 
... If a meeting of the 
people were to take place 
in a slave state, would the 
slaves vote .'' They would not. Why then should they 
be represented in a federal government } " " I can never 
agree," said Gouverneur Morris, " to give such encourage- 
ment to the slave-trade as would be given by allowing the 
southern states a representation for their negroes. ... I 
would sooner submit myself to a tax for paying for all the 
negroes in the United States than saddle posterity with such 
a constitution." 

The attitude taken by Virginia was that of peacemaker. 
On the one hand, such men as Washington, Madison, and 
Mason, who were earnestly hoping to see their own state 
soon freed from the curse of slavery, could not fail to per- 
ceive that if Virginia were to gain an increase of political 




1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



279 



weight from the existence of that institution, the difficulty of 
getting the state legislature to abolish it would be enhanced. 
But, on the other hand, they saw that South Carolina was 
inexorable, and that her refusal to adopt the Constitution 
for this reason would certainly carry Georgia with her, and 
probably North Carolina, also. Even had South Carolina 
alone been involved, it was not simply a question of forming 




v/^^cJ^ 



a Union which should either include her or leave her out in 
the cold. The case was much more complicated than that. 
It was really doubtful if, without the cordial assistance of 
South Carolina, a Union could be formed at all. A Federal 
Constitution had not only to be framed, but it had to be 
presented to the thirteen states for adoption. It was by no 



28o THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

means clear that enough states would ratify it to enable the 
experiment of the new government to go into operation. 
New York and Rhode Island were known to be bitterly 
opposed to it ; Massachusetts could not be counted on as 
sure ; to add South Carolina to this list would be to endan- 
ger everything. The event justified this caution. We shall 
hereafter see that it was absolutely necessary to satisfy 
South Carolina, and that but for her ratification, coming just 
at the moment when it did, the work of the Federal Conven- 
tion would probably have been done in vain. It was a clear 
perception of the wonderful complication of interests involved 
in the final appeal to the people that induced the Virginia 
statesmen to take the lead in a compromise. Four years 
before, in 1783, when Congress was endeavouring to appor- 
tion the quotas of revenue to be required of the several 
states, a similar dispute had arisen. If taxation were to be 
distributed according to population, it made a great difference 
whether slaves were to be counted as population or not. If 
slaves were to be counted, the southern states would have 
to pay more than their equitable share into the federal 
treasury ; if slaves were not to be counted, it was argued at 
the north that they would be paying less than their equitable 
share. Consequently, at that time the north had been 
inclined to maintain that the slaves were population, while 
the south had preferred to regard them as chattels. Thus 
we see that in politics, as well as in algebra, it makes all the 
difference in the world 'whether you start with phis or with 
minus. On that occasion Madison had offered a successful 
compromise, in which a slave figured as three fifths 
rtfths com- of a freeman ; and Rutledge of South Carolina, who 
a genuitie was uow prcscut in the convention, had supported 
S'ftion if ^^^ measure. Madison now proposed the same 
ever there mcthod of getting ovcr the difficulty about repre- 

was one . 

sentation, and his compromise was adopted. It was 
agreed that in counting population, whether for direct taxa- 
tion or for representation in the lower house of Congress, 
five slaves should be reckoned as three individuals. 



1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 281 

All this was thoroughly illogical, of course ; it left the 
question whether slaves are population or chattels for theo- 
rizers to wrangle over, and for future events to decide. It 
was easy for James Wilson to show that there was neither 
rhyme nor reason in it : but he subscribed to it, neverthe- 
less, just as the northern abolitionists, Rufus King and 
Gouverneur Morris, joined with Washington and Madison, 
and with the pro-slavery Pinckneys, in subscribing to it, 
because they all believed that without such a compromise 
the Constitution would not be adopted ; and in this there 
can be little doubt that they were right. The evil conse- 
quences were unquestionably very serious indeed. Hence- 
forth, so long as slavery lasted, the vote of a southerner 
counted for more than the vote of a northerner ; and just 
where negroes were most numerous the power of their 
masters became greatest. In South Carolina there soon 
came to be more blacks than whites, and the application of 
the rule therefore went far toward doubling the vote of 
South Carolina in the House of Representatives and in the 
electoral college. Every five slaveholders down there were 
equal in political weight to not less than eight farmers or 
merchants in the north ; and thus this troublesome state 
acquired a power of working mischief out of all proportion 
to her real size. At a later date the operation of the rule in 
Mississippi was similar; and in general it was just the most 
backward and barbarous parts of the Union that were thus 
favoured at the expense of the most civilized parts. Admit- 
ting all this, however, it remains undeniable that 
the Constitution saved us from anarchy ; and there words, it 
can be little doubt that slavery and every other bTstsdu- 
remnant of barbarism in American society would *'o" attain- 

■' able under 

have thriven far more lustily under a state of thecircum- 
chronic anarchy than was possible under the Con- 
stitution. Four years of concentrated warfare, animated by 
an intense and lofty moral purpose, could not hurt the char- 
acter or mar the fortunes of the people, like a century of 
aimless and miscellaneous squabbling over a host of petty 



282 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

local interests. The War of Secession was a terrible ordeal 
to pass through ; but when one tries to picture what might 
have happened in this fair land without the work of the 
Federal Convention, the imagination stands aghast. 

The second great compromise between northern and 
Compro- southern interests related to the abolition of the 
niisebe- foreign slave-trade and the power of the federal 

tween New o i 

England government over commerce. All the states ex- 

and South ® r- ■, ^ ■,• i/- • ■ ■, ^ 

Carolina ccpt South Carolma and Lreorgia wished to stop 
foreign'^ the importation of slaves ; but the physical con- 
siave-trade ^jj^-^Qj^g Qf j-i^e and indigo culture exhausted the 
negroes so fast that these two states felt that their indus- 
tries would be dried up at the very source if the importation 
of fresh negroes were to be stopped. Cotesworth Pinckney 
accordingly declared that South Carolina would consider a 
vote to abolish the slave-trade as simply a polite way of tell- 
ing her that she was not wanted in the Union. On the 
other hand, the three New England states present in the 
convention had made up their minds that it would not do 
to allow the several states any longer to regulate commerce 
each according to its own whim. It was of vital importance 
that this power should be taken from the states and lodged 
in Congress ; otherwise, the Union would soon be rent in 
pieces by commercial disputes. The policy of New York 
had thoroughly impressed this lesson upon all the neigh- 
bouring states. But none of the southern states were in 
favour of granting this power unreservedly to Congress. If 
a navigation act could be passed by a simple majority in Con- 
gress, it was feared that the New Englanders would get all 
the carrying trade into their own hands, and then charge 
ruinous freights for carrying rice, indigo, and tobacco to 
the north and to Europe. On this point, accordingly, the 
southern delegates acted as a unit in insisting that Congress 
should not be empowered to regulate commerce, except by 
a two thirds vote of both houses. The New Englanders 
insisted that such a restriction would tie the hands of the 
federal government most unfortunately. But if a tariff act 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



283 




could be passed by a simple majority, it was feared that we 
should come to see — well, just what we have come to see ; 
the shameful system of wholesale robbery upon which Con- 
gress had entered by 1828, and which during the last thirty 
years has been growing ever more cynical, ruthless, and 
base. Here were the materials ready for a compromise, or, 
as the stout abolitionist, Gouverneur Morris, truly called it, a 
"bargain " between New England and the far south. New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut consented to 
the prolonging of the foreign slave-trade for twenty years, 
or until 1 808 ; and in return South Carolina and Georgia 
consented to the clause empowering Congress to pass navi- 



284 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

gation acts and otherwise regulate commerce by a simple 
majority of votes. At the same time, as a concession to 
rice and indigo, the New Englanders agreed that Congress 
should be forever prohibited from taxing exports ; and thus 
one remnant of mediaeval political economy was neatly 
swept away. 

This compromise was carried against the sturdy opposition 
of Virginia. The language of George Mason of Virginia is 
worth quoting, for it was such as Theodore Parker might 
have used. He called the slave-trade "this infernal traffic." 
" Slavery," said he, "discourages arts and manufac- 
compro- tures. The poor despise labour when performed 
tTmak^™^ ^y slaves. They prevent the immigration of 
the adhe- whites, who really strengthen and enrich a coun- 

sion of y o 

Virginia try. They produce the most pernicious effect on 

doubtful -^ . <- 1 -1 

manners. h,very master of slaves is born a petty 
tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. 
As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next 
world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of 
causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by 
national calamities." But these prophetic words were pow- 
erless against the combination of New England with the far 
south. One thing was now made certain, — that the vast 
influence of Rutledge and the Pinckneys would be thrown 
unreservedly in behalf of the new Constitution. " I will 
confess," said Cotesworth Pinckney, "that I had prejudices 
against the eastern states before I came here, but I have 
found them as liberal and candid as any men whatever." 
But this compromise, which finally secured South Carolina 
and Georgia, made Virginia for the moment doubtful ; for 
Mason and Randolph were so disgusted at the absolute 
power over commerce conceded to Congress that, when the 
Constitution was finished and engrossed on paper, they 
refused to sign it. 

It is difficult to read this or any other episode in our 
history whereby negro slavery was extended and fostered 
without burning indignation. But this is not the proper 




i^^^ 



1 78; 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



285 



mood for the historian, whose aim is to interpret men's 
actions by the circumstances of their time, in order to judge 
their motives correctly. In 1787 slavery was the cloud like 
unto a man's hand which portended a deluge, but those who 
could truly read the signs were few. From north to south, 
slavery had been slowly dying out for nearly fifty years. It 
had become extinct in Massachusetts, it was nearly so in all 



,-*^ 




-ii^'<m- 



CHARLES PINCKNEY 



the other northern states, and it had just been forever pro- 
hibited in the national domain. In Maryland and Virginia 
there was a strong and growing party in favour of abolition. 
The movement had even gathered strength in North Caro- 
lina. Only the rice-swamps of the far south remained 
wedded to their idols. It was quite generally believed 
that slavery was destined speedily to expire, to give place 
to a better system of labour, without any great danger or 



288 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

disturbance ; and this opinion was distinctly set forth by- 
many delegates in the convention.^ Even Charles Pinckney 
went so far as to express a hope that South Carolina, if not 
too much meddled with, would by and by voluntarily rank 
herself among the emancipating states ; but his older cousin 
declared himself bound in candour to acknowledge that there 
was very little likelihood indeed of so desirable an event. 
Not even these South Carolinians ventured to defend slavery 
on principle. This belief in the moribund condition of 
slavery prevented the convention from realizing the actual 
effect of the concessions which were made. Very little 
cotton was grown at that time, and none was sent to Eng- 
land. The industrial revolution about to be wrought by the 
inventions of Arkwright and Hargreaves, Cartwright and 
Watt and Whitney, could not be foreseen. Nor could it be 
foreseen that presently, when there should thus arise a great 
demand for slaves from Virginia as a breeding-ground, the 
abolitionist party in that state would disappear, leaving her 
to join in the odious struggle for introducing slavery into the 
national domain. Though these things were so soon to hap- 
pen, the wisest man in 1787 could not foresee them. The 
convention hoped that twenty years would see not only the 
end of the foreign slave-trade, but the restriction and dim- 
inution of slavery itself. It was in such a mood that they 
completed the compromise by recommending a tariff of ten 
dollars a head upon all negroes imported, while at the same 
time a clause was added for insuring the recovery of fugitive 

' The slave-population of the United States, according to the census 
of 1790, was thus distributed among the states : — 

North South 

New Hampshire 158 Delaware 8,887 

Vermont 17 Maryland 103,036 

Massachusetts _ Virginia 293,427 

Rhode Island 952 North Carolina 100,572 

Connecticut 2,759 South Carolina 107,094 

New York 21,324 Georgia 29,264 

New Jersey 11,423 Kentucky 11,830 

Pennsylvania 3,737 Tennessee 3,417 

40,370 657,527 

Total 697,897 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



289 



slaves, quite similar to the clause in the ordinance for the 
government of the northwestern territory. 

It was the three great compromises here described that 
laid the foundations of our Federal Constitution. The first 
compromise, by conceding equal representation to the states 
in the Senate, enlisted the small states in favour of ^j^g fou^. 
the new scheme, and by establishing a national sys- 
tem of representation in the lower house, prepared 
the way for a government that could endure. This 
was Madison's great victory, secured by the aid of 
Sherman and Ellsworth, without which nothing could have 



dations of 
the Consti- 
tution were 
thus laid in 
compro- 
mise 




GUNSTON HALL, VIRGINIA: MASON'S HOME 



been effected. The second compromise, at the cost of giv- 
ing disproportionate weight to the slave states, gained their 
support for the more perfect union that was about to be 
formed. The third compromise, at the cost of postponing 
for twenty years the abolition of the foreign slave-trade, 



290 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

secured absolute free-trade between the states, with the sur- 
render of all control over commerce into the hands of the 
federal government. After these steps had been taken, the 
most difficult and dangerous part of the road had been 
travelled ; the remainder, though extremely important, was 
accomplished far more easily. It was mainly the task of 
building on the foundations already laid. 

In the grants to the federal government of powers hitherto 
reserved to the several states, the diversity of opinion among 
the members of the convention was but slight compared to 
the profound antagonism which had been allayed by the 
three initial compromises. It was admitted, as a matter of 
course, that the federal government alone could coin money, 
Powers fix the Standard of weights and measures, establish 
thelldlrai post-offices and post-roads, and grant patents and 
government copyrights. To it alouc was naturally intrusted 
the whole business of war and of international relations. It 
could define and punish felonies committed on the high seas ; 
it could maintain a navy and issue letters of marque and 
reprisal ; it could support an army and provide for calling 
forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, to sup- 
press insurrections, and to repel invasions. But in relation 
to this question of the army and the militia there was some 
characteristic discussion. It was at first proposed that Con- 
gress should have the power " to subdue a rebellion in any 
state on the application of its legislature." The Shays 
rebellion was then fresh in the memory of all the delegates, 
and their arguments simply reflected the impression which 
that unpleasant affair had left upon them. Charles Pinck- 
ney, Gouverneur Morris, and John Langdon wished to have 
the power given to Congress unconditionally, without waiting 
for an application from the legislature. But Gerry, who had 
been on the ground, spoke sturdily against such a needless 
infraction of state rights. He was utterly opposed, he said, 
to "letting loose the myrmidons of the United States on a 
state without its own consent. The states will be the best 
judges in such cases. More blood would have been spilt in 



1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 291 

Massachusetts in the late insurrection if the general author- 
ity had mtermeddled." Ellsworth suggested that Congress 
should use Its discretion only in cases where the leo-islature 
of the state could not meet ; but Randolph forcibly replied 
that if Congress is to judge whether a state legislature can 
or cannot meet, the difficulty is in no wise surmounted 




C^^^J^y^^^'^^Q^^^.^i^ 




Gerry s view at last prevailed, and in accordance therewith 
It was decided that the federal power should guarantee to 
every state a republican form of government, and should pro- 
tect each of them against invasion; and on application of 
the legislature, or of the executive (if the legislature could 
not be convened), it should protect them against domestic 
violence. This arrangement did not fully provide against 
such an emergency as that of rival and hostile executives in 
the same state, as under the so-called "carpet-bag" govern- 



292 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 



ments which followed after the War of Secession, but it was 
doubtless as sound a provision as any general constitution 
could make. 

The federal government was further empowered to bor- 
row money on the credit of the United States ; and it was 
declared that all debts contracted and engagements entered 
into before the adoption of this constitution should be as 
valid against the United States under this constitution as 
under the confederation. There was to be no repudiation 
or readjustment of debts on the ground of inability to pay. 
Congress was further empowered to establish a uniform rule 
of naturalization and a uniform law of bankruptcy. But it 
was prohibited from passing bills of attainder or ex post facto 
laws, or suspending the writ of habeas corpus, except under 
the stress of rebellion or invasion. It was provided that 
all duties, imposts, or excises should be uniform throughout 
the United States. The federal government could not give 
preference to one state over another in its commercial regu- 
lations. It could not tax exports. It could not draw money 
from the treasury save by due process of appropriation, and 
all bills relating to the raising of revenue must originate 
in the lower house, which directly represented the people. 
Congress was empowered to admit new states into the 
Union, but it was not allowed to interfere with the territo- 
rial areas of states already existing without the express con- 
sent of the local legislatures. To insure the independence 
of the federal government, it was provided that senators and 
representatives should be paid out of the federal treasury, 
and not by their respective states, as had been the case 
under the confederation. Except for such offences as trea- 
son, felony, or breach of the peace, they should be " privi- 
leged from arrest during their attendance at the session of 
their respective houses, and in going to or returning from 
the same; and for any speech or debate in either house" 
they were not to be "questioned in any other place." It 
was further provided that a territory not exceeding ten 
miles square should be ceded to the United States, and set 



1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 293 

apart as the site of a federal city, in which the general gov- 
ernment should ever after hold its meetings, erect its build- 
ings, and exercise exclusive jurisdiction. During the past 
four years the Continental Congress had skipped about 
from Philadelphia to Princeton, to Annapolis, to Trenton, to 
New York, until it had become a laughing-stock, and the 
newspapers were full of squibs about it. Verily, said one 
facetious editor, the Lord shall make this government like 
unto a wheel, and keep it rolling back and forth betwixt 
Dan and Beersheba, and grant it no rest this side of Jordan. 
This inconvenience was now to be remedied. Congress 
was hereafter to have a federal police force at its disposal, 
and was never more to be reduced to the humiliation of a 
fruitless appeal to the protecting arm of a state government, 
as at Philadelphia in the summer of 1783. Furthermore, 
the Continental Congress had of late years commanded so 
little respect, and had offered so few temptations to able 
men in quest of political distinction, that its meetings were 
often attended by no more than eight or ten members. It 
was actually on the point of dying a natural death through 
sheer lack of public interest in it. To prevent any possible 
continuance of such a disgraceful state of things, it was 
agreed that the Federal Congress should be " authorized to 
compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner 
and under such penalties as each house may provide." Had 
the political life of the country continued to go on as under 
the confederation, it is very doubtful whether such a provi- 
sion as this would have remedied the evil. But the new 
Federal Congress, drawing its life directly from the people, 
was destined to afford far greater opportunities for a politi- 
cal career than were afforded by the feeble body of dele- 
gates which preceded it ; and a penal clause, compelling 
members to attend its meetings, was hardly needed under 
the new circumstances which arose. 

While the powers of the federal government were thus 
carefully defined, at the same time several powers were ex- 
pressly denied to the states. No state was allowed, without 



294 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 



explicit authority from Congress, to lay any tonnage or cus- 
tom-house duties, " keep troops or ships of war in 

Powers . 

denied to time of peace, enter mto any agreement or com- 
pact with another state or with a foreign power, 
or engage in war unless actually invaded, or in such immi- 
nent danger as will not admit of delays." The following 
clause provided against a recurrence of some of the worst 
evils which had been felt under the " league of friendship : " 
" No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confeder- 
ation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; 
emit bills of credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin 
a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex 
post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts ; 
or grant any title of nobility." Henceforth there was to be 
no repetition of such disgraceful scenes as had lately been 
witnessed in Rhode Island. So far as the state legislatures 
were concerned, paper money was to be ruled out forever. 
But how was it with the federal government } By the arti- 
cles of confederation the United States were allowed to 
issue bills of credit, and make them a tender in payment of 
debts. In the Federal Convention the committee of detail 
suggested that this permission might remain under the new 
constitution ; but the suggestion was almost unanimously 
condemned. All the ablest men in the convention spoke 
emphatically against it. Gouverneur Morris urged that the 
Emphatic federal government, no less than the state govern- 
condemna- mcnts, should be expressly prohibited from issuing 
paper bills of Credit, or in any wise making its promis- 

money ^^^^ notcs a legal tender. He went over the 
history of the past ten years ; he called attention to the 
obstinacy with which the wretched device had been resorted 
to again and again, after its evils had been thrust before 
everybody's eyes ; and he proved himself a true prophet 
when he said that if the United States should ever ae-ain 
have a great war to conduct, people would have forgotten 
all about these things, and would call for fresh issues of 
inconvertible paper, with similar disastrous results. Now 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



295 



was the time to stop it once for all. "Yes," echoed Roger 
Sherman, "this is the favourable crisis for crushing paper 
money." "This is the time," said his colleague, Ellsworth, 
"to shut and bar the door against paper money, which can 
in no case be necessary. Give the government credit, and 
other resources will offer. The power may do harm, never 
good." There was no 
way, he added, in which 
powerful friends could so 
soon be gained for the 
new constitution as by 
withholding this power 
from the government. 
James Wilson took the 
same view. " It will have 
the most salutary influ- 
ence on the credit of the 
United States," said he, 
" to remove the possi- 
bility of paper money." 
" Rather than grant the 
power to Congress," said 
John Langdon, " I would 
reject the whole plan." 
" The words which grant 
this power," said George 
Read of Delaware, " if not 

struck out, will be as alarming as the mark of the Beast in 
the Apocalypse." On none of the subjects that came up 
for discussion during that summer was the convention more 
nearly unanimous than in its condemnation of paper money. 
The only delegate who ventured to speak in its favour was 
IVIercer of Maryland. What Hamilton would have said, if 
he had been present that day, we may judge from his vig- 
orous words published some time before. The power to 
emit an inconvertible paper as a sign of value ought never 
hereafter to be used ; for in its very nature, said he, it is 




^^^^^^ 



296 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

" pregnant with abuses, and liable to be made the engine of 
imposition and fraud, holding out temptations equally per- 
nicious to the integrity of government and to the morals 
of the people." Paterson called it " sanctifying iniquity by 
law," The same views were entertained by Washington 
and Madison. There were a few delegates, however, who 
thought it unsafe to fetter Congress absolutely. To use 
Luther Martin's expression, they did not set themselves up 
to be "wise beyond every event." George Mason said he 
" had a mortal hatred to paper money, yet, as he could not 
foresee all emergencies, he was unwilling to tie the hands of 
the legislature. The late war," he thought, "could not have 
been carried on had such a prohibition existed." Randolph 
spoke to the same effect. Such opinions were common 
then, and are common now ; though to any one who has 
carefully studied our financial history it is quite clear that 
both in the War of Independence and in the War of Seces- 
sion legal-tender notes were not a help but a most baneful 
encumbrance. 

It was finally decided, by the vote of nine states against 
New Jersey and Maryland, that the power to issue incon- 
vertible paper should not be granted to the federal govern- 
ment. An express prohibition, such as had been adopted 
for the separate states, was thought unnecessary. It was 
supposed that it was enough to withhold the power, since 
the federal government would not venture to exercise it 
unless expressly permitted in the Constitution. " Thus," 
says Madison, in his narrative of the proceedings, " the pre- 
text for a paper currency, and particularly for making the 
bills a tender, either for public or private debts, was cut 
off." Nothing could be more clearly expressed than this. 
As Mr. Justice Field observes, in his able dissenting opinion 
in the recent case of Juilliard vs. Greenman, "if there be 
anything in the history of the Constitution which can be 
established with moral certainty, it is that the framers of 
that instrument intended to prohibit the issue of legal-tender 
notes both by the general government and by the states, 



1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 297 

and thus prevent interference with the contracts of private 
parties." Such has been the opinion of our ablest constitu- 
tional jurists, Marshall, Webster, Story, Curtis, and Nelson. 
There can be little doubt that, according to all sound prin- 
ciples of interpretation, the Legal Tender Act of 1862 was 
passed in flagrant violation of the Constitution. Could Ells- 
worth and Morris, Langdon and Madison, have foreseen the 
possibility of such extraordinary judgments as have lately 
emanated from the Supreme Court of the United States, 
they would doubtless have insisted upon the express pro- 
hibition, instead of leaving it to posterity to root out the 
plague, as it will apparently some time have to do, by the 
cumbrous process of an amendment to the Constitution. 

The work of the convention, as thus far considered, 
related to the legislative department of the new government. 
While these discussions were going on, much attention had 
been paid, from time to time, to the characteristics of the 
proposed federal executive. The debates on this question, 
though long kept up, were far less acrimonious than the 
debates on representation and the power of Congress over 
trade, because here there was no obvious clashing of local 
interests. But for this very reason the convention had no 
longer so clear a chart to steer by. On the question of the 
slave-trade, the Pinckneys knew accurately just what South 
Carolina wanted, how much it would do to claim, and how 
far it would be necessary to yield. As to the regulation of 
commerce by a bare majority of votes in Congress, King and 
Sherman on the one hand. Mason and Randolph on the 
other, were able to pursue a thoroughly definite course of 
action in behalf of what were supposed to be the special 
interests of New England or of Virginia. Consequently, the 
debates kept close to the point ; the controversy was keen, 
and sometimes, as we have seen, angry. 

It was very different with the question as to the federal 
executive. Upon this point the discussions were guided 
rather by general speculations as to what would be most 
likely to work well, and accordingly they wandered far and 



298 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

wide. Some of the delegates seemed to think we should 
sooner or later come to adopt a hereditary monarchy, and 
that the chief thing to be done was to postpone the event 
as long as possible. Many wild ideas were broached : such, 
for example, as a triple-headed executive, to represent the 
Debates as castcrn, middle, and southern states, somewhat as 
erau^xecu- associated Roman emperors at times administered 
ti'^e affairs in the different portions of an undivided 

empire. The Virginia plan had not stated whether its pro- 
posed executive was to be single or plural, because the Vir- 
ginia delegates could not agree. Madison wished it to be 
single, to insure greater efficiency, but to Randolph and 
Mason a tyranny seemed to lurk in such an arrangement. 
When James Wilson and Charles Pinckney suggested that 
the executive power should be intrusted into the hands of 
one man, a profound silence fell upon the convention. No 
one spoke for several minutes, until Washington, from the 
chair, asked if he should put the question. Franklin then 
got up, and said it was an interesting subject, and he should 
like to hear what the members had to say ; and so the ball 
was set rolling. Rutledge said there was no need of their 
being so shy. A man might frankly express his opinions, 
and afterwards change them if he saw good reason for so 
doing. For his part, he was in favour of vesting the execu- 
tive power in a single person, to secure efficiency of admin- 
istration and concentration of responsibility ; but he would 
not give him the power to declare war and make peace. 
Sherman then made the far-reaching suggestion, that the 
executive magistracy was really " nothing more than an 
institution for carrying the will of the legislature into effect ; 
that the person or persons ought to be appointed by and 
accountable to the legislature only, which was the depository 
of the supreme will of the society. As they were the best 
judges of the business which ought to be done by the execu- 
tive department, ... he wished the number might not be 
fixed, but that the legislature should be at liberty to appoint 
one or more, as experience might dictate." It would greatly 




tyu^o^ <//u^. 



?n^ 



1787 THE P'EDERAL CONVENTION 299 

have astonished the convention had they been told that this 
suggestion of Sherman's was a move in the very same line 
of development which the British government had been 
following for more than half a century ; yet such, as we shall 
presently see, was the case. Had this point been understood 
then as we understand it now, the proceedings of the con- 
vention could not have failed to be profoundly affected by 
it. As it was, the suggestion did not receive due attention, 
and the stream of discussion was turned into a very different 
channel. Wilson argued powerfully in favour of a single 
chief magistrate, and this view finally prevailed. 

After it had been decided that there should be one man 
set in so high a position, there was endless discussion as to 
whether he should be elected by the people or by Congress, 
and whether he should serve for one, or two, or three, or 
four, or ten, or fifteen years. " Better call it 
twenty," said Rufus King, sarcastically ; " it is the should be a 
average reign of princes." Hamilton and Gouver- biThow*' 
neur Morris would have had him chosen for life, should he 

' be elected 

subject to removal for misbehaviour ; but the pre- 
ference for a short term of service was soon manifest. As 
to the method of election, opinions oscillated back and forth 
for several weeks. Wilson said "he was almost unwilling 
to declare the mode which he wished to take place, being 
apprehensive that it might appear chimerical. He would 
say, however, at least, that in theory he was for an election 
by the people. Experience, particularly in New York and 
Massachusetts, showed that an election of the first magis- 
trate by the people at large was both a convenient and a 
successful mode. The objects of choice in such cases must 
be persons whose merits have general notoriety." Mason, 
Rutledge, and Strong agreed with Sherman that the execu- 
tive should be chosen by the legislature ; but Washington, 
Madison, Gerry, and Gouverneur Morris strongly disap- 
proved of this. Morris argued that an election by the 
national legislature would be the work of intrigue and cor- 
ruption, like the election of the king of Poland by a diet of 



300 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 



nobles ; but Mason declared, on the other hand, that " to 
refer the choice of a proper character for a chief magistrate 
to the people would be as unnatural as to refer a trial of 
colours to a blind man." A decision was first reached 
against an election by Congress, because it was thought that 
if the chief magistrate should prove himself thoroughly com- 
petent he ought to be reeligible ; but if reeligible he would 
be exposed to the temptation of truckling to the most power- 
ful party or cabal in Congress, in order to secure his reelec- 
tion. It did not occur to any one to suggest that under 
ordinary circumstances the executive ought to follow the 
policy of the most powerful party in Congress, and that he 
might at the same time preserve all needful independence 
by being clothed with the power of dissolving Congress and 
making an appeal to the people in a new election. It is 
interesting to consider what might have come of such a sug- 
gestion, following upon the heels of that made by Roger 
Sherman. As we shall presently see, it might have gone 
far toward assimilating the machinery of our government to 
that of Great Britain by making the executive the arm of 
the legislature, instead of a separate and coordinate power. 
Upon this point the minds of nearly all the members were 
so far under the sway of an incorrect theory of the British 
constitution that such an idea occurred to none of them. It 
was decided that the chief magistrate ought to be reeligible, 
and therefore should not be elected by Congress. 

An immediate choice by the people, however, did not 
Suggestion meet with general favour. To obviate the dififi- 
t'ora" c^dr culty, Ellsworth and King suggested the device of 
lege an electoral college, in which the electors should 

be chosen by the state legislatures, and should hold a meet- 
ing at the federal city for the sole purpose of deciding upon 
a chief magistrate. It was then objected that it would be 
difficult to find competent men who would be willing to 
undertake a long journey simply for such a purpose. The 
objection was felt to be a very grave one, and so the conven- 
tion returned to the plan of an election by Congress, and 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



301 




^.^^<^7-2K^ 



again confronted the diffi- 
culty of the chief magis- 
trate's intriguing to secure 
his reelection. Wilson 
thought to do away with 
this difficulty by introdu- 
cing the element of blind 
chance, as in some of the 
states of ancient Greece, 
and choosing the executive 
by a board of electors taken 
from Congress by lot ; 
but the suggestion found 
little support. Dickinson 
thought it would be well 
if the people of each state 
were to choose its best 
citizen, — in modern par- 
lance, its " favourite son ; " 

then out of these thirteen names a chief magistrate might 
be chosen, either by Congress or by a special board of elec- 
tors. At length, on the 26th of July, at the motion of 
Mason, the convention resolved that there should be a 
national executive, to consist of a single person, to be chosen 
by the national legislature for the term of seven years, and 
to be ineligible for a second term. He was to be styled 
President of the United States of America. 

This decision remained until the very end of August, 
when the whole question was reopened by a motion of Rut- 
ledge that the two houses of Congress, in electing the presi- 
dent, should proceed by "joint ballot." The object of this 
motion was to prevent either house from exerting a negative 
on the choice of the other. It was carried in spite of the 
opposition of some of the smaller states, which might hope 
to exercise a greater relative influence upon the choice of 
presidents, if the Senate were to vote separately. At this 
point the fears of Gouverneur Morris, that an election by 



302 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

Congress would result in boundless intrigue, were revived ; 
and in a powerful speech he persuaded the convention to 
return to the device of the electoral college, which might 
be made equal in number and similar in composition to the 
two houses of Congress sitting together. It need not be 
required of the electors, after all, that they should make a 
long journey to the seat of the federal government. They 
might meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for 
two persons, one of whom must be an inhabitant of a differ- 
ent state. By this provision it was hoped to diminish the 
chances for extreme sectional partiality. A list of these 
votes might be sent under seal to the presiding officer of the 
Senate, to be counted. Should no candidate turn out to 
have a majority of the votes,^the Senate might choose a 
president from the five highest candidates on the list. The 
candidate having the next highest number of votes might be 
declared vice-president, and preserve the visible continuity 
of the government in case of the death of the president 
during his term of office. By these changes the method of 
electing the president, as finally decided upon, was nearly 
completed. But Mason, Randolph, Gerry, King, and Wil- 
son were not satisfied with the provision that the Senate 
might choose the president in case of a failure of choice on 
the part of the electoral college : they preferred to give this 
power to the House of Representatives. It was thought 
that the Senate would be likely to prove an aristocratic 
body, somewhat removed from the people in its sympathies, 
and there was a dread of intrusting to it too many impor- 
tant functions. Mason thought that the sway of an aristo- 
cracy would be worse than an absolute monarchy ; and if 
the Senate might every now and then elect the president, 
there would be a risk that the dignity of his office might 
degenerate, until he should become a mere creature of the 
Senate. On the other hand, the small states, in order to 
have an equal voice with the large ones, in such an emer- 
gency as the failure of choice by the electoral college, 
wished to keep the eventual choice in the hands of the 



1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 303 

Senate. Among the delegates from the small states, only 
Langdon and Dickinson at first supported the change, and 
only New Hampshire voted for it. At length Sherman pro- 
posed a compromise, which was carried. It was agreed that 
the eventual choice should be given to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and not to the Senate, but that in exercising this 
function the vote in the House of Representatives should be 
taken by states. Thus the humours of the delegates from 





^m^i/^ 



the small states, and of those who dreaded the accumulation 
of powers into the hands of an oligarchy, were alike grati- 
fied. This arrangement was finally adopted by the votes of 
ten states against Delaware. 

But in spite of all the minute and anxious care that was 
taken in guarding this point, the contingency of an election 



304 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

being thus thrown into the hands of the national legislature 
was not regarded as likely often to occur. In point of fact, 
it has hitherto happened only twice in the century, in the 
elections of 1800 and of 1824. It was recognized that the 
work would ordinarily be done through the machinery of 
the electoral college, and that thus the fear of intrigue 
between the president and Congress, as it had originally 
been felt by the convention, might be set aside. To make 
assurance doubly sure, it was provided that " no person shall 
be appointed an elector who is a member of the legislature 
of the United States, or who holds any office of profit or 
trust under the United States." It then appeared that the 
arguments which had been alleged against the eligibility of 
the president for a second term had lost their force ; and 
he was accordingly made reeligible, while his term of ser- 
vice was reduced from seven years to four. 

The scheme had thus arrived substantially at its present 
shape, except that the counting of the electoral vote still 
remained in the hands of the Senate. On the 6th of Sep- 
tember this provision was altered, and it was decided that 
"the president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the 
Senate and the House of Representatives, open 

How to 1 11 1 1 

count the all the Certificates, and the votes shall then be 
counted." The object of this provision was to 
take the office of counting away from the Senate alone, and 
give it to Congress as a whole ; and while doing so, to guard 
against the failure of an election through the disagreement 
of the two houses. The method of counting was not pre- 
scribed, for it was thought that it might safely be left to 
joint rules established by the two houses of Congress them- 
selves, after analogies supplied by the experience of the 
several state legislatures. The case of double returns, sent 
in by rival governments in the same state, was not contem- 
plated by the convention ; and thus the door was left open 
for a danger considerably greater than many of those over 
which the delegates were agitated. It may safely be said, 
however, that not even the wildest hcense of interpretation 



178; 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



305 



can find any support for the ridiculous doctrine suggested 
by some persons blinded by political passion in 1877, that 
the business of counting the votes and deciding upon the 
validity of returns belongs to the president of the Senate. 




^^^^hioM^^^^^^^n^^iT^ 



No such idea was for a moment entertained by the conven- 
tion. Any such idea is completely negatived by their action 
of the 6th of September. The express purpose of the final 
arrangement made on that day was to admit the House of 
Representatives to active participation in the office of de- 
termining who should have been elected president. It was 
expressly declared that this work was too important to be 
left to the Senate alone. What, then, would the conven- 
tion have said to the preposterous notion that this work 



3o6 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

might safely be left to the presiding ofificer of the Senate ? 
The convention were keenly alive to any imaginable grant 
of authority that might enable the Senate to grow into an 
oligarchy. What would they have said to the proposal to 
create a monocrat ad hoc, an official permanently endowed 
by virtue of his office with the function of king-maker } 

In this connection it is worth our while to observe that 
in no respect has the actual working of the Constitution 
departed so far from the intentions of its framers as in the 
case of their provisions concerning the executive. Against 
The con- ^ ^*^^^ ^^ possiblc dangers they guarded most elab- 
vention oratelv, but the dangers and inconveniences against 

foresaw •' ^ T 

imaginary which wc havc actually had to contend they did not 
but mst'the forcsce. It will be observed that Wilson's pro- 
real ones posal for a direct election of the president by the 
people found little favour in the convention. The schemes 
that were seriously considered oscillated back and forth 
between an election by the national legislature and an elec- 
tion by a special college of electors. The electors might be 
chosen by a popular vote, or by the state legislatures, or in 
any such wise as each state might see fit to determine for 
itself. In point of fact, electors were chosen by the legisla- 
ture in New Jersey till 1816; in Connecticut till 1820; in 
New York, Delaware, and Vermont, and with one exception 
in Georgia, till 1824; in South Carolina till 1868. Massachu- 
setts adopted various plans, and did not finally settle down 
to an election by the people until 1828. Now there were 
several reasons why the Federal Convention was afraid to 
trust the choice of the president directly to the people. 
One was that very old objection, the fear of the machina- 
tions of demagogues, since people were supposed to be so 
easily fooled. As already observed, the democratic senti- 
ment in the convention was such as we should now call 
weak. Another reason shows vividly how wide the world 
seemed in those days of slow coaches and mail-bags carried 
on horseback. It was feared that people would not have 
sufficient data wherewith to judge of the merits of public 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



307 



men in states remote from their own. The electors, as 
eminent men exceptionally well informed, might hold little 
conventions and select the best possible candidates, using 
in every case their own unfettered judgment. 

In this connection the words of Hamilton are worth quot- 
ing. In the sixty-eighth number of the " Federalist " he 
says : " The mode of appointment of the chief magistrate 
of the United States is almost the only part of the sys- 
tem which has escaped without severe censure, or which 





has received the slightest mark of approbation from its 
opponents. The most plausible of these who has appeared 
in print has even deigned to admit that the election of 
the president is well guarded. ... It was desirable that the 
sense of the people should operate in the choice of the 



3o8 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

person to whom so important a trust was to be confided. 
... It was equally desirable that the immediate election 
should be made by men capable of analyzing the qualities 
adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances 
favourable to deliberation and to a judicious combination of 
all the reasons and inducements that were proper to govern 
their choice. A small number of persons, selected by their 
fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to 
possess the information and discernment requisite to so com- 
plicated an investigation. ... It was also peculiarly desir- 
able to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and 
disorder. This evil was not least to be dreaded in the elec- 
tion of a magistrate who was to have so important an agency 
in the administration of the g-overnment." 

Such was the theory as set forth by a thinker endowed 

with rare ability to follow out in imagination the results of 

any course of political action. It is needless to say that the 

actual working of the scheme has been very different from 

what was expected. In our very first great strug- 

Actual ^ , , -' ,r . , , 

working gle of parties, m 1800, the electors divided upon 
electoral party lincs, with little heed to the "complicated 
scheme investigation " for which they were supposed to be 
chosen. Quite naturally, for the work of electing a candi- 
date presupposes a state of mind very different from that of 
serene deliberation. In 1800 the electors acted simply as 
automata recording the victory of their party, and so it has 
been ever since. In our own time presidents and vice- 
presidents are nominated, not without elaborate intrigue, by 
special conventions quite unknown to the Constitution ; the 
people cast their votes for the two or three pairs of can- 
didates thus presented, and the electoral college simply 
registers the results. The system is thus fully exposed to 
all the dangers which our forefathers dreaded from the fre- 
quent election of a chief magistrate by the people. Owing 
to the great good-sense and good-nature of the American 
people, the system does not work so badly as might be 
expected. It has, indeed, worked immeasurably better than 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



309 



any one would have ventured to predict. It is nevertheless 
open to grave objections. It compels a change of adminis- 
tration at stated astronomical periods, whether any change 
of policy is called for or not ; it stirs up the whole country 
every fourth year with a furious excitement that is often 
largely factitious; and twice within the century, in 1801 and 
again in 1877, it has brought us to the verge of the most 
foolish and hopeless species of civil war, in view of that thor- 
oughly monarchical kind of accident, a disputed succession.^ 
The most curious and instructive point concerning the 
peculiar executive devised for the United States by the 
Federal Convention is 
the fact that the dele- 
gates proceeded upon a 
thoroughly false theory 
of what they were doing. 
As already observed, in 
this part of its discus- 
sions the convention had 
not the clearly outlined 
chart of local interests to 
steer by. It indulged in 
general speculations and 
looked about for prece- 
dents ; and there was 
one precedent which 
American statesmen then 
always had before their 
eyes, whether they were 
distinctly aware of it or 
not. In creating an ex- 
ecutive department, the members of the convention were 
really trying to copy the only constitution of which they 
had any direct experience, and which most of them agreed 

* Since this was written, this last and most serious danger would 
seem to have been removed by the acts of 1886 and 1887 regulating the 
presidential succession and the counting of electoral votes. 




Kr^^ t/yL^u/k^ 



3IO THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

in thinking the most efficient working constitution in exist- 
The con- cncc, — as indeed it was. They were trying to 
vention copv the British Constitution, modifying it to suit 

supposed ^ J _ _ ' JO 

itself to be their repubUcan ideas ; but curiously enough, what 

copying • i • • -i rr r -1 

from the they copicd m creatmg the office of president was 
Constitu- not the real English executive or prime minister, 
*'°" but the fictitious English executive, the sovereign. 

And this was associated in their minds with another pro- 
found misconception, which influenced all this part of their 
work. They thought that to keep the legislative and exec- 
utive offices distinct and separate was the very palladium of 
liberty ; and they all took it for granted, without a mo- 
ment's question, that the British Constitution did this thing. 
England, they thought, is governed by King, Lords, and 
Commons, and the supreme power is nicely divided between 
the three, so that neither one can get the whole of it, and 
that is the safeguard of English liberty. So they arranged 
President, Senate, and Representatives to correspond, and 
sedulously sought to divide supreme power between the 
three, so that they might operate as checks upon one an- 
other. If either one should ever succeed in acquiring the 
whole sovereignty, then they thought there would be an 
end of American liberty. 

Now in the earher part of the work of the Federal Con- 
vention, in dealing with the legislative department, the dele- 
gates were on firm ground, because they were dealing with 
things of which they knew something by experience ; but in 
all this careful separation of the executive power from the 
legislative they went wide of the mark, because they were 
following a theory which did not truly describe things as 
they really existed. And that was because the English Con- 
stitution was, and still is, covered up with a thick husk of 
legal fictions which long ago ceased to have any vitality. 
Blackstone, the great authority of the eighteenth century, 
set forth this theory of the division of power between King, 
Lords, and Commons with clearness and force, and nobody 
then understood English history minutely or thoroughly 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



311 



enough to see its fallaciousness. Montesquieu also, the 
ablest and most elegant political writer of the age, influence 
with wnose works most of the statesmen in the "f Pontes- 

quieu ana 

Federal Convention were familiar, gave a similar Biackstone 
description of the English Constitution, and generalized 
from it as the ideal constitution for a free people. But 
Montesquieu and Biackstone, in their treatment of this 





point, had their eyes upon the legal fictions, and were blind 
to the real machinery which was working under them. 
They gave elegant expression to what the late Mr. Bagehot 
called the " literary theory " of the English Constitution. 
But the real thing differed essentially from the " literary 
theory" even in their day. In our own time the diver- 
gence has become so conspicuous that it would not now be 
possible for well-informed writers to make the mistake of 
Montesquieu and Biackstone. In our time it has come to 



312 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

be perfectly obvious that so far from the Enghsh Constitu- 
tion separating the executive power from the legislative, 
this is precisely what it does not do. In Great Britain the 
supreme power is all lodged in a single body, the House of 
Commons. The sovereign has come to be purely a legal 
fiction, and the House of Lords maintains itself only by 
submitting to the Commons. The House of Commons is 
absolutely supreme, and, as we shall presently see, it really 
both appoints and dismisses the executive. The English 
executive, or chief magistrate, is ordinarily the first lord of 
the treasury, and is commonly styled the prime minister. 
He is chairman of the most important committee of the 
House of Commons, and his cabinet consists of the chair- 
men of other committees. 

To make this perfectly clear, let us see what our ma- 
chinery of government would be if it were really like the 
English. The presence or absence of the crowned head 
makes no essential difference ; it is only a kind of orna- 
mental cupola. Suppose for a moment the presidency 
What our abolished, or reduced to the political nullity of the 
me^T*^ crown in England ; and postpone for a moment 
would be the consideration of the Senate. Suppose that in 

if it were r -r> • i 

really like our Housc of Representatives the committee of 

that of 1 1 1 i 1 • 

Great ways and means had two chairmen, — an upper 

Britain chairman who looks after all sorts of business, and 
a lower chairman who attends especially to the finances. 
This upper chairman, we will say, corresponds to the first 
lord of the treasury, while the lower one corresponds to the 
chancellor of the exchequer. Sometimes, when the upper 
chairman is a great financier, and capable of enormous 
labour, he will fill both places at once, as Mr. Gladstone 
was lately first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the 
exchequer. The chairmen of the other committees on for- 
eign, military, and naval affairs will answer to the English 
secretaries of state for foreign affairs and for war, the first 
lord of the admiralty, and so on. This group of chairmen, 
headed by the upper chairman of the ways and means, will 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



313 



then answer to the English cabmet, with its prime minister. 
To complete the parallel, let us suppose that, after a new 
House of Representatives is elected, it chooses this prime 





minister, and he appoints the other chairmen who are to 
make up his cabinet. Suppose, too, that he initiates all 
legislation, and executes all laws, and stays in office three 
weeks or thirty years, or as long as he can get a majority of 
the house to vote for his measures. If he loses his majority. 



314 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

he can either resign or dissolve the house, and order a new 
election, thus appealing directly to the people. If the new 
house gives him a majority, he stays in office ; if it shows 
a majority against him, he steps down into the house, and 
becomes, perhaps, the leader of the opposition. 

Now if this were the form of our government, it would 
correspond in all essential features to that of England. The 
likeness is liable to be obscured by the fact that in England 
it is the queen who is supposed to appoint the prime minis- 
ter ; but that is simply a part of the antiquated " literary 
theory " of the English Constitution. In reality the queen 
only acts as mistress of the ceremonies. Whatever she may 
wish, the prime minister must be the man who can com- 
mand the best working majority in the house. This is not 
only tested by the first vote that is taken, but it is almost 
invariably known beforehand so well that if the queen offers 
the place to the wrong man he refuses to take it. Should 
he be so foolish as to take it, he is sure to be overthrown at 
the first test vote, and then the right man comes in. Thus 
in 1880 the queen's manifest preference for Lord Granville 
or Lord Hartington made no sort of difference. Mr. Glad- 
stone was as much chosen by the House of Commons as if 
the members had sat in their seats and balloted for him. If 
the crown were to be abolished to-morrow, and the house 
were henceforth, on the resignation of a prime minister, to 
elect a new one to serve as long as he could command a 
majority, it would not be doing essentially otherwise than 
it does now. The house then dismisses its minister when 
it rejects one of his important measures. But while thus 
appointed and dismissed by the house, he is in no wise its 
slave ; for by the power of dissolution he has the right to 
appeal to the country, and let the general election decide 
the issue. The obvious advantages of this system are that 
it makes anything like a deadlock between the legislature 
and the executive impossible ; and it insures a concentra- 
tion of responsibility. The prime minister's bills cannot be 
disregarded, like the president's messages ; and thus, too. 



1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 315 

the house is kept in hand, and cannot degenerate into a 
debating club.^ 

A system so delicate and subtle, yet so strong and effi- 
cient, as this could no more have been invented by the 
wisest of statesmen than a chemist could make albumen by 
taking its elements and mixing them together. In its prac- 
tical working it is a much simpler system than ours, and 
still its principal features are not such as would be likely to 
occur to men who had not had some actual experience of 
them. It is the peculiar outgrowth of English history. As 
we can now see, its chief characteristic is its not , , 

In the 

separating the executive power from the legislative. British 

As a member of Parliament, the prime minister mTnt"the 

introduces the legislation which he is himself ex- department 

pected to carry into effect. Nor does the English '^ not sepa- 

'■ •' ... . rated irom 

system even keep the judiciary entirely separate, the legisia- 
for the lord chancellor not only presides over the 
House of Lords, but sits in the cabinet as the prime minis- 
ter's legal adviser. It is somewhat as if the chief justice 
of the United States were ex officio president of the Senate 

and attorney - general ; 
though here the resem- 
/"^ <U t blance is somewhat su- 

/ / perficial. Our Senate, 

^ (J2/LfjP'^ although it does not re- 
present landed aristocracy 
or the church, but the federal character of our government, 
has still a superficial resemblance to the House of Lords. It 
passes on all bills that come up from the lower house, and 
can originate bills on most matters, but not for raising reve- 
nue. Its function as a high court of impeachment, with the 
chief justice for its presiding officer, was directly copied 
from the House of Lords. But here the resemblance ends. 

^ The history of President Cleveland's tariff message of 1887, how- 
ever, shows that, where a wise and courageous president calls attention 
to a living issue, his party, alike in Congress and in the country, is in a 
measure compelled to follow his lead. 




3i6 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

The House of Lords has no such veto upon the House of 
Commons as our Senate has upon the House of Represen- 
tatives. Between our upper and lower houses a serious 
deadlock is possible ; but the House of Lords can only 
reject a bill until it sees that the House of Commons is 
determined to have it carried. It can only enter a protest. 
If it is obstinate and tries to do more, the House of Com- 
mons, through its prime minister, can create enough new 
peers to change the vote, — a power so formidable in its 
effects upon the social position of the peerage that it does 
not need to be used. The knowledge that it exists is usually 
enough to bring the House of Lords to terms. ^ 

These features of the English Constitution are so promi- 
nent since the reform of Parliament in 1832 as to be gener- 
ally recognized. They have been gradually becoming its 
essential features ever since the Revolution of 

Circum- 
stances 1688. Before that time the crown had really 

scured Uie been the executive, and there had really been a 

l^theTa^s'e' Separation between the executive and legislative 

a century brauchcs of the government, which on several 

ago _ *^ _ _ 

occasions, and notably in the middle of the seven- 
teenth century, had led to armed strife. What the Revolu- 
tion of 1688 really decided was that henceforth in England 
the executive was to be the mighty arm of the legislature, 
and not a separate and rival power. It ended whatever of 
reality there was in the old system of King, Lords, and 
Commons, and by the time of Sir Robert Walpole the sys- 
tem of cabinet government had become fairly established ; 
but men still continued to use the phrases and formulas 
bequeathed from former ages, so that the meaning of the 
changes going on under their very eyes was obscured. 
There was also a great historical incident, after Walpole's 
time, which served further to obscure the meaning of these 
changes, especially to Americans. From 1760 to 1784, by 

^ Where, however, the majority in the House of Lords is so great as 
to approach unanimity, as in opposition to Home Rule for Ireland, it 
does operate as a check upon the House of Commons, because tlie 
cure mentioned in the text would be too violent. 



1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 317 

means of the rotten borough system of elections and the 
peculiar attitude of political parties, the king contrived to 
make his will felt in the House of Commons to such an 
extent that it became possible to speak of the personal gov- 
ernment of George III. The work of the Revolution of 
1688 was not really completed till the election of 1784, 
which made Pitt the ruler of England, and its fruits cannot 
be said to have been fully secured till 1832. Now as our 
Revolutionary War was brought on by the attempts of 
George III. to establish his personal government, and as it 
was actually he rather than Lord North who ruled England 
during that war, it was not strange that Americans, even 
of the highest education, should have failed to discover the 
transformation which the past century had wrought ii> the 
framework of the English government. Nay, more, during 
this century the king had seemed even more of a real insti- 
tution to the Americans than to the British. He had 
seemed to them the only link which bound the different 
parts of the empire together. Throughout the struggles 
which culminated in the War of Independence, it had been 
the favourite American theory that while the colonial assem- 
blies and the British Parliament were sovereign each in its 
own sphere, all alike owed allegiance to the king as visible 
head of the empire. To people who had been in the habit 
of setting forth and defending such a theory, it was impossi- 
ble that the crown should seem so much a legal fiction as it 
had really come to be in England. It is very instructive 
to note that while the members of the Federal Convention 
thoroughly understood the antiquated theory of the English 
Constitution as set forth by Blackstone, they drew very few 
illustrations from the modern working of Parliament, with 
which they had not had sufficient opportunities of becoming 
familiar. In particular they seemed quite unconscious of 
the vast significance of a dissolution of Parliament, although 
a dissolution had occurred only three years before under 
such circumstances as to work a revolution in British politics 
without a breath of disturbance. The only sort of dissolu- 



3i8 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

tion with which they were famihar was that in which Dun- 
more or Bernard used to send the colonial assemblies home 
about their business whenever they grew too refractory. 
Had the significance of a dissolution, in the British sense, 
been understood by the convention, the pregnant suggestion 
of Roger Sherman, above mentioned, could not have failed 
to give a different turn to the whole series of debates on the 
executive branch of the government. Had our Constitution 
been framed a few years later, this point would have had a 
better chance of being understood. As it was, in trying to 
modify the English system so as to adapt it to our own uses, 
it was the archaic monarchical feature, and not the modern 
ministerial feature, upon which we seized. The president, 
in our system, irremovable by the national legislature, does 
not answer to the modern prime minister, but to the old- 
fashioned king, with powers for mischief curtailed by elec- 
tion for short terms. 

Among the ancient royal powers wielded by the American 
president, perhaps the most important is his limited power 
of veto. An act passed by the two houses of Congress is 
not in force until he has signed it, or else has allowed ten 
days to elapse without expressing his disapproval of it. If 
he refuse to sign a bill, it requires a two thirds majority in 
both houses to jDass it over his refusal. This gives the 
president a very considerable check upon the national legis- 
lature. The English sovereign once possessed a veto power 
without such specific limitations, but has long since practi- 
cally lost it altogether. The last use of it was in 1707, when 
Queen Anne vetoed a Scotch militia bill. George HI, 
regarded the veto power as one of his prerogatives, but he 
never ventured so far as to exercise it. In our time Mr. 
Bagehot writes that the queen must sign her own death- 
warrant if the two houses agree in sending it up to her.^ 
The American constitution is in this respect essentially less 
democratic and more monarchical than the British. 

^ Bagehot, The English Constitution^ p. 122; Taswell-Langmead, 
English Constitutional History, p. 70G. 



1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 319 

The independence of the executive magistrate, and his 
prerogative of veto, are a fundamental part of the American 
system of government. The position of the state governors 
is in these respects analogous to that of the president. 
Probably this system is better adapted to the needs of our 
country than the more democratic British system. One of 
the most serious of the dangers which beset democratic 
government, especially where it is conducted on a great 
scale, is the danger that the majority for the time being will 
use its power tyrannically and unscrupulously, as it is always 
tempted to do. Against such unbridled democracy we have 
striven to guard ourselves by various constitutional checks 
and balances. Our written constitutions and our supreme 
courts are important safeguards, and another great safe- 
guard is the independence of our executives. But if our 
executive departments were mere committees of the legisla- 
ture, like the English cabinet, this independence could not 
be maintained ; and the loss of it would probably entail 
upon us greater evils than those which now flow from want 
of leadership in our legislatures.^ 

In contrasting presidential with cabinet government, Mr. 
Bagehot has instructively pointed to the evils attending the 
long antagonism between President Johnson and Congress. 
If Johnson's position had been like that of an English prime 
minister, he would have had to resign at the beginning of 
the struggle. As it was, his irremovableness goaded Con- 
gress to such desperation that it tried to make a very ques- 
tionable use of the process of impeachment. This example 
.seems to show the superiority of the English system. 

A contrary inference, however, is suggested by the autumn 
elections of 1862. There was a notable diminution of the 
Republican vote, though not enough to give the Democrats 
a majority in Congress. Supposing the Democrats to have 

^ In two admirable essays on " Cabinet Responsibility and the Con- 
stitution," and " Democracy and the Constitution," Mr. Lawrence 
Lowell has shown the merits of the American system. Lowell, Essays 
on Government, Boston, 1890, pp. 20-117. 



320 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

gained a majority, if Mr. Lincoln had been Prime Minister 
instead of President, it would have been necessary for him to 
resign. In that critical moment of a great war, the bare pos- 
sibility of a sudden change of leaders and policy would have 
been an evil, and the irremovableness of the executive was 
an element of strength on the side of the government. 

The phenomena with which history deals are so compli- 
cated that one can seldom arrive at positive conclusions by 
citing real or hypothetical examples. But there is one 
respect in which daily experience is teaching Americans to 
set a high value upon the independence of the executive. 
That independence, I repeat, is needed as a check upon the 
irresponsible tyranny of the legislature. Two centuries ago 
the legislature was needed as a check upon the monarch. 
To-day the tyranny which we have chiefly to dread, and 
under which we chiefly suffer, is the tyranny of Demos, 
" the many-headed king ; " and when we are choosing a 
president or a governor one of the most important questions 
we can ask is whether the candidate is clear-headed enough 
and bold enough to protect us from the knavery and folly 
of our representatives. Such are the vicissitudes of peril 
through which society must pass on its way toward that 
liberty of which eternal vigilance is the price ! 

The close parallelism between the office of president and 
that of king in the minds of the framers of the Constitution 
was instructively shown in the debates on the advisableness 
of restraining the president's action by a privy council. 
Gerry and Sherman urged that there was need of such a 
council, in order to keep watch over the president, 
can cabinet It was suggested that the privy council should con- 
gourno't to sist of " the president of the Senate, the speaker of 
cabinet 'but ^^^ Housc of Representatives, the chief justice of 
to the privy the suprcmc court, and the principal officer in each 
of five departments as they shall from time to time 
be established ; their duty shall be to advise him in matters 
which he shall lay before them, but their advice shall not 
conclude him, or affect his responsibility." The plan for 



1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 321 

such a council found favour with Franklin, Madison, Wilson, 
Dickinson, and Mason, but did not satisfy the convention. 
When it was voted down Mason used strong language. 
"In rejecting a council to the president," said he, "we are 
about to try an experiment on which the most despotic gov- 
ernment has never ventured ; the Grand Seignior himself 
has his Divan." It was this failure to provide a council 
which led the convention to give to the Senate a share in 
some of the executive functions of the president, such as the 
making of treaties, the appointment of ambassadors, consuls, 
judges of the supreme court, and other officers of the United 
States whose appointment was not otherwise provided for. 
As it was objected to the office of vice-president that he 
seemed to have nothing provided for him to do, he was dis- 
posed of by making him president of the Senate. No cabi- 
net was created by the Constitution, but since then the 
heads of various executive departments, appointed by the 
president, have come to constitute what is called his cabinet. 
Since, however, the members of it do not belong to Congress, 
and can neither initiate nor guide legislation, they really 
constitute a privy council rather than a cabinet in the 
modern sense, thus furnishing another illustration of the 
analogy between the president and the archaic sovereign. 

Concerning the structure of the federal judiciary little 
need be said here. It was framed with very little The federal 
disagreement among the delegates. The work was J^'^^'^'^y 
chiefly done in committee by Ellsworth, Wilson, Randolph, 
and Rutledge, and the result did not differ essentially from 
the scheme laid down in the Virginia plan. It was indeed 
the indispensable completion of the work which was begun 
by the creation of a national House of Representatives. To 
make a federal government immediately operative upon 
individual citizens, it must of course be armed with federal 
courts to try and federal officers to execute judgment in 
all cases in which individual citizens were amenable to the 
national law. But for this system of United States courts 
extended throughout the states and supreme within its own 



322 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

sphere, the federal constitution could never have been put 
into practical working order. In another respect the federal 
judiciary was the most remarkable and original of all the 
creations of that wonderful convention. It was charged 
with the duty of interpreting, in accordance with the general 
principles of common law, the Federal Constitution itself. 
This is the most noble as it is the most distinctive feature in 
the government of the United States. It constitutes a dif- 
ference between the American and British systems more 
fundamental than the separation of the executive from the 
legislative department. In Great Britain the unwritten con- 
stitution is administered by the omnipotent House of Com- 
mons ; whatever statute is enacted by Parliament must stand 
until some future Parliament may see fit to repeal it. But 
an act passed by both houses of Congress, and signed by the 
president, may still be set aside as unconstitutional by the 
supreme court of the United States in its judgments upon 
individual cases brought before it. It was thus that the 
practical working of our Federal Constitution during the first 
thirty years of the nineteenth century was swayed to so 
great an extent by the profound and luminous decisions of 
Chief Justice Marshall, that he must be assigned a foremost 
place among the founders of our Federal Union. This 
intrusting to the judiciary the whole interpretation of the 
fundamental instrument of government is the most pecul- 
iarly American feature of the work done by the convention, 
and to the stability of such a federation as ours, covering as 
it does the greater part of a huge continent, it was absolutely 
indispensable. 

Thus, at length, was realized the sublime conception of a 
nation in which every citizen lives under two complete and 
well-rounded systems of laws, — the state law and the fed- 
eral law, — each with its legislature, its executive, and its 
judiciary moving one within the other, noiselessly and with- 
out friction. It was one of the longest reaches of construc- 
tive statesmanship ever known in the world. There never 
was anything quite like it before, and in Europe it needs 



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1787 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 323 

much explanation to-day even for educated statesmen who 
have never actually beheld its workings. Yet to Americans 
it has become so much a matter of course that they, too, 
sometimes need to be told how much it signifies. In 1787 
it was the substitution of law for violence between states 
that were partly sovereign. In some future still grander 
convention we trust the same thing will be done between 
states that have been wholly sovereign, whereby peace may 
gain and violence be diminished over other lands than this 
which has set the example. 

Great as was the work which the Federal Convention had 
now accomplished, none of the members supposed it to be 
complete. After some discussion, it was decided that 
Congress might at any time, by a two thirds vote in both 
houses, propose amendments to the Constitution, or on the 
application of the legislature of two thirds of the states 
might call a convention for proposing amendments ; and 
such amendments should become part of the constitution 
as soon as ratified by three fourths of the states, either 
through their legislatures or through special conventions 
summoned for the purpose. The design of this elaborate 
arrangement was to guard against hasty or ill-considered 
changes in the fundamental instrument of government ; and 
its effectiveness has been such that an amendment has 
come to be impossible save as the result of intense convic- 
tion on the part of a vast majority of the whole American 
people. 

Finally it was decided that the Federal Constitution, as 
now completed, should be presented to the Continental 
Congress, and then referred to special conventions in all 
the states for ratification ; and that when nine states, or two 
thirds of the whole number, should have ratified, it should 
at once go into operation as between such ratifying states. 

When the great document was at last drafted by Gouver- 
neur Morris, and was all ready for the signatures, the aged 
Franklin produced a paper, which was read for him, as his 
voice was weak. Some parts of this Constitution, he said. 



324 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

he did not approve, but he was astonished to find it so nearly 
perfect. Whatever opinion he had of its errors he 

Signing the '■ i i t 

Constitu- would Sacrifice to the public good, and he hoped 
that every member of the convention who still had 
objections would on this occasion doubt a little of his own 
infallibility, and for the sake of unanimity put his name to 
this instrument. Hamilton added his plea. A few mem- 
bers, he said, by refusing to sign, might do infinite mischief. 
No man's ideas could be more remote from the plan than his 
were known to be ; but was it possible for a true patriot to 
deliberate between anarchy and convulsion, on the one side, 
and the chance of good to be expected from this plan, on 
the other } From these appeals, as well as from Washing- 
ton's solemn warning at the outset, we see how distinctly it 
was realized that the country was on the verge of civil war. 
Most of the members felt so, but to some the new govern- 
ment seemed far too strong, and there were three who 
dreaded despotism even more than anarchy. Mason, Ran- 
dolph, and Gerry refused to sign, though Randolph sought 
to qualify his refusal by explaining that he" could not yet 
make up his mind whether to oppose or defend the Consti- 
tution, when it should be laid before the people of Virginia. 
He wished to reserve to himself full liberty of action in the 
matter. That Mason and Gerry, valuable as their services 
had been in the making of the Constitution, would now go 
home and vigorously oppose it, there was no doubt. Of the 
delegates who were present on the last day of the conven- 
tion, all but these three signed the Constitution. In the 
signatures the twelve states which had taken part in the 
work were all represented, Hamilton signing alone for New 
York. 

Thus after four months of anxious toil, through the whole 
of a scorching Philadelphia summer, after earnest but some- 
times bitter discussion, in which more than once the meet- 
ing had seemed on the point of breaking up, a colossal work 
had at last been accomplished, the results of which were 
powerfully to affect the whole future career of the human 



1787 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



325 




THE president's ARMCHAIR 



race. In spite of the high-wrought intensity of feeling 
which had been now and then displayed, grave decorum had 
ruled the proceedings ; and now, though few were really 
satisfied, the approach to acquiescent unanimity was re- 
markable. When all was over, it is said that many of the 
members seemed awestruck. Washington sat with head 
bowed in solemn meditation. The scene was ended by 
a characteristic bit of homely pleasantry from Franklin. 
Thirty-three years ago, in the days of George II., before 
the first mutterings of the Revolution had been heard, and 
when the French dominion in America was still untouched, 
before the banishment of the Acadians or the rout of Brad- 
dock, while Washington was still surveying lands in the 
wilderness, while Madison was playing in the nursery and 
Hamilton was not yet born, Franklin had endeavoured to 
bring together the thirteen colonies in a federal union. Of 
the famous Albany plan of 1754, the first complete outline 



326 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vi 

of a federal constitution for America that ever was made, he 
was the principal if not the sole author. When he signed 
his name to the Declaration of Independence in this very 
room, his years had rounded the full period of threescore 
and ten. Eleven years more had passed, and he had been 
spared to see the noble aim of his life accomplished. There 
was still, no doubt, a chance of failure, but hope now reigned 
in the old man's breast. On the back of the president's 
quaint black armchair there was emblazoned a half-sun, bril- 
liant with its gilded rays. As the meeting was breaking up 
and Washington arose, Franklin pointed to the chair, and 
made it the text for prophecy. " As I have been sitting 
here all these weeks," said he, " I have often wondered 
whether yonder sun is rising or setting. But now I know 
that it is a rising sun ! " 



CHAPTER VII 



CROWNING THE WORK 



It was on the 17th of September, 1787, that the Federal 
Convention broke up. For most of the delegates there was 
a long and tedious journey home before they could meet 
their fellow-citizens and explain what had been done at Phil- 
adelphia during this anxious summer. Not so, however, 
with Benjamin Franklin and the Pennsylvania delegation. 
At eleven o'clock on the next morning, radiant with delight 
at seeing one of the most cherished purposes of his life so 
nearly accomplished, the venerable philosopher, attended by 
his seven colleagues, presented to the legislature of Pennsyl- 
vania a copy of the Federal Constitution, and in a brief but 
pithy speech, characterized by his usual homely wisdom, 
begged for it their favourable consideration. His words 
fell upon willing ears, for nowhere was the disgust at the 
prevailing anarchy greater than in Philadelphia. But still 
it was not quite in order for the assembly to act upon the 
matter until word should come from the Continental Con- 
gress. Since its ignominious flight to Princeton, four years 
ago, that migratory body had not honoured Philadelphia 
with its presence. It had once flitted as far south as An- 
napolis, but at length had chosen for its abiding-place the 
city of New York, where it was now in session. The new 
To Congress the new Constitution must be sub- ^onfs'iaid 

mitted before it was in order for the several states ^^^ore Con- 
gress and 
to take action upon it. On the 20th of Septem- submitted 

ber the draft of the Constitution was laid before to the sev- 

Congress, accompanied by a letter from Washing- forVatlfka- 

ton. The forces of the opposition were promptly ^'°" 

mustered. At their head was Richard Henry Lee, who 



328 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

eleven years ago had moved in Congress the Declaration of 
Independence. He was ably supported by Nathan Dane 
of Massachusetts, and the delegation from New York were 
unanimous in their determination to obstruct any movement 
toward a closer union of the states. Their tactics were vig- 
orous, but the majority in Congress were against them, 
especially after the return of Madison from Philadelphia. 
Madison, aided by Edward Carrington and young Henry 
Lee, the famous leader of light horse, succeeded in every 
division in carrying the vote of Virginia in favour of the 
Constitution and against the obstructive measures of the 
elder Lee. The objection was first raised that the new Con- 
stitution would put an end to the Continental Congress, and 
that in recommending it to the states for consideration Con- 
gress would be virtually asking them to terminate its own 
existence. Was it right or proper for Congress thus to have 
a hand in signing its own death-warrant .-' But this flimsy 
argument was quickly overturned. Seven months before 
Congress had recognized the necessity for calling the con- 
vention together ; whatever need for its work existed then, 
there was the same need now ; and by refusing to take due 
cognizance of it Congress would simply stultify itself. The 
opposition then tried to clog the measure by proposing 
amendments, but they were outgeneralled, and after eight 
days' discussion it was voted that the new Constitution, 
together with Washington's letter, "be transmitted to the 
several legislatures, in order to be submitted to a convention 
of delegates in each state by the people thereof, in con- 
formity to the resolves of the convention." 

The submission of the Constitution to the people of the 
states was the signal for the first formation of political 
parties on a truly national issue. During the war there had 
indeed been Whigs and Tories, but their strife had not been 
like the ordinary strife of political parties ; it was actual war- 
fare. Irredeemably discredited from the outset, the Tories 
had been overridden and outlawed from one end of the 
Union to the other. They had never been able to hold up 



i 



1787 CROWNING THE WORK 329 

their heads as a party in opposition. Since the close of the 
war there had been local parties in the various states, divided 
on issues of hard and soft money, or the impost, or state 
rights, and these issues had coincided in many of the states. 
During the autumn of 1787 all these elements were segre- 
gated into two great political parties, whose charac- 
ter and views are sufficiently described by their American 
names. Those who supported the new Constitu- Federalists 
tion were henceforth known as Federalists ; those ?"/ ^"'!" 

' federalists 

who were opposed to strengthening the bond be- 
tween the states were called Antifederalists. It was fit that 
their name should have this merely negative significance, for 
their policy at this time was purely a policy of negation and 
obstruction. Care must be taken not to confound them 
with the Democratic-Republicans, or strict constructionists, 
who appear in opposition to the Federalists soon after the 
adoption of the Constitution. The earlier short-lived party 
furnished a great part of its material to the later one, but 
the attitude of the strict constructionists under the Constitu- 
tion was very different from that of the Antifederalists. 
Madison, the second Republican president, was now the 
most energetic of Federalists ; and Jefferson, soon to become 
the founder of the Democratic-Republican party, wrote from 
Paris, saying, " The Constitution is a good canvas, on which 
some strokes only want retouching." He found the same 
fault with it that was found by many of the ablest and most 
patriotic men in the country, — that it failed to include a bill 
of rights ; but at the same time he declared that while he 
was not of the party of Federalists, he was much further 
from that of the Antifederalists. The Federal Convention 
he characterized as "an assembly of demi-gods." 

The first contest over the new Constitution came in Penn- 
sylvania. The Federalists in that state were numerous, 
but their opponents had one point in their favour The con- 
which they did not fail to make the most of. The p^nngyi. 
constitution of Pennsylvania was peculiar. Its leg- '^^"^^ 
islature consisted of a single house, and its president was 



330 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

chosen by that house. Therefore, said the Antifederalists, 
if we approve of a federal constitution which provides for a 
legislature of two houses and chooses a president by the 
device of an electoral college, we virtually condemn the 
state constitution under which we live. This cry was raised 
with no little effect. But some of the strongest immediate 
causes of opposition to the new Constitution were wanting 
in Pennsylvania. The friends of paper money were few 
there, and the objections to the control of the central 
government over commerce were weaker than in many of 
the other states. The Antifederalists were strongest in 
the mountain districts west of the Susquehanna, where the 
somewhat lawless population looked askance at any plan 
that savoured of a stronger government and a more regular 
collection of revenue. In the eastern counties, and espe- 
cially in Philadelphia, the Federalists could count upon a 
heavy majority. 

The contest began in the legislature on the 28th of Sep- 
tember, the very day on which Congress decided to submit 
the Constitution to the states, and before the news of the 
action had reached Philadelphia. The zeal of the Federal- 
ists was so intense that they could wait no longer, and they 
hurried the event with a high-handed vigour that was not 
altogether seemly. The assembly was on the eve of break- 
ing up, and a new election was to be held on the first Tues- 
day of November. The Antifederalists hoped to make a 
stirring campaign, and secure such a majority in the new 
legislature as to prevent the Constitution from being laid 
before the people. But their game was frustrated by 
George Clymer, who had sat in the Federal Convention, 
and now most unexpectedly moved that a state convention 
be called to consider the proposed form of government. 
Great was the wrath of the Antifederalists. Mr. Clymer 
was quite out of order, they said. Congress had not yet 
sent them the Constitution ; and besides, no such motion 
could be made without notice given beforehand, nor could 
it be voted on till it had passed three readings. Parliamen- 



1787 



CROWNING THE WORK 



33' 



tary usage was doubtless on the side of the Antifederalists, 
but the majority were clamorous, and overwhelmed them 
with cries of " Question, question ! " The question was 
then put, and carried by 43 votes against 19, and the house 




^v_^^l^<^^^>-;^ 



adjourned till four o'clock. Before going to their dinners 
the nineteen held an indignation meeting, at which it was 
decided that they would foil these outrageous proceedings by 
staying away. It took forty-seven to make a quorum, and 
without these malcontents the assembly numbered but forty- 
five. When the house was called to order after dinner, it 
was found there were but forty-five members present. The 



332 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

sergeant-at-arms was sent to summon the delinquents, but 
they defied him, and so it became necessary to adjourn till 
next morning. It was now the turn of the Federalists to 
uncork the vials of wrath. The affair was discussed in the 
taverns till after midnight, the nineteen were 

How to . . ° 

make a abuscd without stiut, and soon after breakfast, 
'^"°™ next morning, two of them were visited by a 

crowd of men, who broke into their lodgings and dragged 
them off to the state house, where they were forcibly held 
down in their seats, growling and muttering curses. This 
made a quorum, and a state convention was immediately 
appointed for the 20th of November. Before these pro- 
ceedings were concluded, an express-rider brought the news 
from New York that Congress had submitted the Constitu- 
tion to the judgment of the states. 

And now there ensued such a war of pamphlets, broad- 
sides, caricatures, squibs, and stump-speeches as had never 
been seen in America. Cato and Aristides, Cincinnatus 
and Plain Truth, were out in full force. What was the 
matter with the old confederation .-• asked the Antifederal- 
ists. Had it not conducted a glorious and triumphant war ? 
Had it not set us free from the oppression of England ? 
That there was some trouble now in the country could not 
be denied, but all would be right if people would only curb 
their extravagance, wear homespun clothes, and obey the 
laws. There was government enough in the country 
already. This Philadelphia convention ought to be dis- 
trusted. Some of its members, such as John Dickinson 
and Robert Morris, had opposed the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. Pretty men these, to be offering us a new gov- 
ernment ! You might be sure there was a British cloven 
foot in it somewhere. Their convention had sat four months 
with closed doors, as if they were afraid to let people know 
what they were about. Nobody could tell what secret con- 
spiracies against American liberty might not have been 
hatched in all that time. One thing was sure : the conven- 
tion had squabbled. Some members had gone home in a 




^^^^^zy 



M 



1787 CROWNING THE WORK 333 

huif ; others had refused to sign a document fraught with 
untold evils to the country. And now came James Wilson, 
making speeches in behalf of this precious Constitution, and 
trying to pull the wool over people's eyes and persuade them 
to adopt it. Who was James Wilson, any way .-• A Scotch- 
man, a countryman of Lord Bute, a born aristocrat, a snob, a 
patrician, Jimmy, James de Caledonia. Beware of any form 
of government defended by such a man. And as to the 
other members of the convention, there was Roger Sher- 
man, who had signed the articles of confederation, and was 
now trying to undo his own work. What confidence could 
be placed in a man who did not know his own mind any 
better than that .'* Then there were Hamilton and Madi- 
son, mere boys ; and Franklin, an old dotard, a man in his 
second childhood. And as to Washington, he was doubtless 
a good soldier, but what did he know about politics .■• So 
said the more moderate of the malcontents, hesitating for 
the moment to speak disrespectfully of such a man ; but 
presently their zeal got the better of them, and in a paper 
signed " Centinel " it was boldly declared that Washington 
was a born fool ! 

From the style and temper of these arguments one clearly 
sees that the Antifederalists in Pennsylvania felt from the 
beginning that the day was going against them. Sixteen of 
the men who had seceded from the assembly, headed by 
Robert Whitehill of Carlisle, issued a manifesto setting forth 
the ill-treatment they had received, and sounding an alarm 
against the dangers of tyranny to which the new Constitution 
was already exposing them. They were assisted by Rich- 
ard Henry Lee, who published a series of papers entitled 
" Letters from the Federal Farmer," and scattered thousands 
of copies through the state of Pennsylvania. He did not 
deny that the government needed reforming, but in the pro- 
posed plan he saw the seeds of aristocracy and of centraliza- 
tion. The chief objections to the Constitution were that it 
created a national legislature in which the vote was to be by 
individuals, and not by states ; that it granted to this body 



334 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

an unlimited power of taxation ; that it gave too much power 
to the federal judiciary ; that it provided for paying the 
salaries of members of Congress out of the federal treasury, 
and would thus make them independent of their own states ; 
that it required an oath of allegiance to the federal govern- 
ment ; and finally, that it did not include a bill of rights. 
These objections were very elaborately set forth by the lead- 
ing Antifederalists in the state convention ; but the logic 
and eloquence of James Wilson bore down all opposition. 
The Antifederalists resorted to filibustering. Five days, it 
is said, were used up in settling the meanings of the two 
words "annihilation " and " consolidation." In this way the 
convention was kept sitting for nearly three weeks, when 
news came from "the Delaware state," as it used then to be 
called in Pennsylvania. The concession of an equal repre- 
^ , sentation in the federal Senate had removed the 

Delaware 

ratifies the only ground of opposition in Delaware, and the 

tion, Dec. Federalists had everything their own way there. 

Penn^syiva- ^^ ^ convcution asscmblcd at Dover, on the 6th of 

nia, Dec. December, the Constitution was ratified without a 

12 ; New 

Jersey, single disscntiug voice. Thus did this little state 
lead the way in the good work. The news was 
received with exultation by the Federalists at Philadelphia, 
and on the I2th Pennsylvania ratified the Constitution by a 
two thirds vote of 46 to 23. The next day all business was 
quite at a standstill, while the town gave itself up to proces- 
sions and merrymaking. The convention of New Jersey 
had assembled at Trenton on the nth, and one week later, 
on the 1 8th, it ratified the Constitution unanimously. 

A most auspicious beginning had thus been made. Three 
states, one third of the whole number required, had ratified 
almost at the same moment. Two of these, moreover, were 
small states, which at the beginning of the Federal Conven- 
tion had been obstinately opposed to any fundamental change 
in the government. It was just here that the Federalists 
were now strongest. The Connecticut compromise had 
wrought with telling effect, not only in the convention, but 



1787 



CROWNING THE WORK 



335 




BOSTON IN 1790 



upon the people of the states. When the news from Tren- 
ton was received in Pennsylvania, there was great rejoicing 
in the eastern counties, while beyond the Susquehanna there 
were threats of armed rebellion. On the day after Christ- 
mas, as the Federalists of Carlisle were about to light a bon- 
fire on the common and fire a salute, they were driven off 
the field by a mob armed with bludgeons, their rickety old 
cannon was spiked, and an almanac for the new year, con- 
taining a copy of the Constitution, was duly cursed, and 
then burned. Next day the Federalists, armed with mus- 
kets, came back, and went through their ceremonies. Their 
opponents did not venture to molest them ; but after they 
had dispersed, an Antifederalist demonstration was made, 
and effigies of James Wilson and Thomas McKean, another 
prominent Federalist, were dragged to the common, and 
there burned at the stake. 

The action of Delaware and New Jersey had shown that 
the Antifederalists could not build any hopes upon the 
antagonism between large and small states. It was thought, 
however, that the southern states would unite in opposing 
the Constitution from their dread of becoming commer- 



336 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

cially subjected to New England. But the compromise on 
the slave-trade had broken through this opposition. 
raS^ On the 2d of January, 1788, the Constitution was 
1788^ Con- ratified in Georgia without a word of dissent. One 
necticut, week later Connecticut ratified by a vote of 128 to 

Jan. 9 •' 

40, after a session of only five days. 
The hopes of the Antifederalists now rested upon Massa- 
chusetts, where the state convention assembled on the 9th 
of January, the same day on which that of Connecticut broke 
up. Should Massachusetts refuse to ratify, there would be 
The out- no hope for the Constitution. Even should nine 
MasslTchu- states adopt it without her, no one supposed a 
setts Federal Union feasible from which so great a state 

should be excluded. Her action, too, would have a marked 
effect upon other states. It could not be denied that the 
outlook in Massachusetts was far from encouraging. The 
embers of the Shays rebellion still smouldered there, and in 
the mountain counties of Worcester and Berkshire were 
heard loud murmurs of discontent. Laws impairing the 
obligation of contracts were just what these hard-pressed 
farmers desired, and by the proposed Constitution all such 
laws were forever prohibited. The people of the district of 
Maine, which had formed part of Massachusetts for nearly a 
century, were anxious to set up an independent government 
for themselves ; and they feared that if they were to enter 
into the new and closer Federal Union as part of that state, 
they might hereafter find it impossible to detach themseh^es. 
For this reason half of the Maine delegates were opposed to 
the Constitution. In none of the thirteen states, moreover, 
was there a more intense devotion to state rights than in 
Massachusetts. Nowhere had local self-government reached 
a higher degree of efficiency ; nowhere had the town meet- 
ing flourished with such vigour. It was especially charac- 
teristic of men trained in the town meeting to look with sus- 
picion upon all delegated power, upon all authority that was 
to be exercised from a distance. They believed it to be 
all important that people should manage their own affairs. 




JOHN HANCOCK, Ef^, 
PRESIDENT ^^^(5^ AMimicAN Congress. 



338 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

instead of having them managed by other people ; and so 
far had this principle been carried that the towns of Massa- 
chusetts were like little semi-independent republics, and the 
state was like a league of such republics, whose representa- 
tives, sitting in the state legislature, were like delegates 
strictly bound by instructions rather than untrammelled 
members of a deliberative body. To men trained in such a 
school, it would naturally seem that the new Constitution 
delegated altogether too much power to a governing body 
which must necessarily be remote from most of its constitu- 
ents. It was feared that some sort of tyranny might grow 
out of this, and such fears were entertained by men who 
were not in the slightest degree infected with Shaysism, as 
the political disease of the inland counties was then called. 
Such fears were entertained by one of the greatest citizens 
that Massachusetts has ever produced, the man who has 
been well described as preeminently "the man of the town 
meeting," — Samuel Adams. The limitations of this great 
man, as well as his powers, were those which belonged to 
him as chief among the men of English race who have 
swayed society through the medium of the ancient folk 
mote. At this time he was believed by many to be hostile 
to the new Constitution, and his influence in Massachusetts 
was still greater than that of any other man. Besides this, 
it was thought that the governor, John Hancock, was half- 
hearted in his support of the Constitution, and it was in 
everybody's mouth that Elbridge Gerry had refused to set 
his name to that document because he felt sure it would 
create a tyranny. 

Such symptoms encouraged the Antifederalists in the 
hope that Massachusetts would reject the Constitution and 
ruin the plans of the "visionary young men" — as Richard 
Henry Lee called them — who had swayed the Federal Con- 
vention. But there were strong forces at work in the oppo- 
site direction. In Boston and all the large coast towns, even 
those of the Maine district, the dominant feeling was Feder- 
alist. All well-to-do people had been alarmed by the Shays 



1788 CROWNING THE WORK 339 

insurrection, and merchants, shipwrights, and artisans of 
every sort were convinced that there was no prosperity in 
store for them until the federal government should have 
control over commerce, and be enabled to make its strength 
felt on the seas and in Europe. In these views Samuel 
Adams shared so thoroughly that his attitude toward the 
Constitution at this moment was really that of a waverer 




rather than an opponent. Amid balancing considerations 
he found it for some time hard to make up his mind. 

In the convention which met on the 9th of January there 
sat Gorham, Strong, and King, who had taken part in the 
Federal Convention. There were also Samuel Adams and 
James Bowdoin ; the revolutionary generals, Heath and 
Lincoln ; and the rising statesmen, Sedgwick, Parsons, and 
Fisher Ames, whose eloquence was soon to become so 
famous. There were twenty-four clergymen, of various 
denominations, — men of sound scholarship, and several of 



340 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 



CHAP. VII 




(^^^ix^ y^ 



on^^V^ 



them eminent for worldly wisdom and liberality of temper. 
Governor Hancock presided, gorgeous in crimson velvet and 
finest laces, while about the room sat many browned and 
weatherbeaten farmers, among whom were at least eighteen 
who hardly a year ago had marched over the pine-clad 
mountain ridges of Petersham, under the banner of the rebel 
Shays. It was a wholesome no less than a generous policy 
that let these men come in and freely speak their minds. 
The air was thus the sooner cleared of discontent ; the 
disease was thus the more likely to heal itself. In all there 
were three hundred and fifty-five delegates present, — a 
much larger number than took part in any of the other state 
conventions. The people of all parts of Massachusetts were 



1788 CROWNING THE WORK 341 

thoroughly represented, as befitted the state which was pre- 
eminent in the active political life of its town meetings, 
and the work done here was in some respects decisive in its 
effect upon the adoption of the Constitution. 

The convention began by overhauling that document from 
beginning to end, discussing it clause by clause with some- 
what wearisome minuteness. Some of the objections seem 
odd to us at this time, with our larger experience. Debates in 
It was several days before the minds of the coun- chusettf^' 
try members could be reconciled to the election of convention 
representatives for so long a period as two years. They had 
not been wont to delegate power to anybody for so long a 
time, not even to their selectmen, whom they had always 
under their eyes. How much more dangerous was it likely to 
prove if delegated authority were to be exercised for so long 
a period at some distant federal city, such as the Constitution 
contemplated ! There was a vague dread that in some 
indescribable way the new Congress might contrive to make 
its sittings perpetual, and thus become a tyrannical oligarchy, 
which might tax the people without their consent. And 
then as to this federal city, there were some who did not like 
the idea. A district ten miles square ! Was not that a 
great space to give up to the uncontrolled discretion of the 
federal government, wherein it could wreak its tyrannical 
will without let or hindrance } One of the delegates thought 
he could be reconciled to the new Constitution if this dis- 
trict could only be narrowed down to one mile square. And 
then there was the power granted to Congress to maintain a 
standing army, of which the president was to be ex officio 
commander-in-chief. Did not this open the door for a Crom- 
well } It was to be a standing army for at least two years, 
since this was the shortest period between elections. Why, 
even the British Parliament, since 1688, did not keep up a 
standing army for more than one year at a time, but renewed 
its existence annually under what was termed the Mutiny 
Act. But what need of a standing army at all } Would 
it not be sure to provoke needless disorders .'' Had they 



342 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

already forgotten the Boston Massacre, in spite of all the 
orations that had been delivered in the Old South Meeting- 
House ? A militia, organized under the town meeting sys- 
tem, was surely all-sufficient. Such a militia had won glori- 
ous triumphs at Lexington and Bennington ; and at King's 
Mountain, had not an army of militia surrounded and cap- 
tured an army of regulars led by one of England's most 
skilful officers .'' What more could you ask } Clearly this 
plan for a standing army foreboded tyranny. Upon this 
point Mr. Nason, from the Maine district, had his say, in 
tones of inimitable bombast. "Had I the voice of Jove," 
said he, " I would proclaim it throughout the world ; and had 
I an arm like Jove, I would hurl from the globe those villains 
that would dare attempt to establish in our country a stand- 
ing army ! " 

Next came the complaint that the Constitution did not 
recognize the existence of God, and provided no religious 
tests for candidates for federal offices. But, strange to say, 
this objection did not come from the clergy. It was urged 
by some of the country members, but the ministers in the 
convention were nearly unanimous in opposing it. 
titude of There had been a remarkable change of sentiment 
ergy ^^Q^ig the clcrgy of this state, which had begun 
its existence as a theocracy, in which none but church 
members could vote or hold office. The seeds of modern 
liberalism had been planted in their minds. When Amos 
Singletary of Sutton declared it to be scandalous that a 
Papist or an infidel should be as eligible to office as a 
Christian, — a remark which naively assumed that Roman 
Catholics were not Christians, — the Rev. Daniel Shute of 
Hingham replied that no conceivable advantage could result 
from a religious test. Yes, said the Rev. Philip Payson of 
Chelsea, " human tribunals for the consciences of men are 
impious encroachments upon the prerogatives of God. A 
religious test, as a qualification for office, would have been 
a great blemish." " In reason and in the Holy Scripture," 
said the Rev. Isaac Backus of Middleborough, " religion is 



1788 



CROWNING THE WORK 



343 



ever a matter between God and the individual ; the imposing 
of religious tests hath been the greatest engine of tyranny 
in the world." With this liberal stand firmly taken by the 
ministers, the religious objection was speedily overruled. 

Then the clause which allows Congress to regulate the 
times, places, and manner of holding federal elections was 
severely criticised. It was feared that Congress would take 
advantage of this provision to destroy the freedom of elec- 
tions. It was further objected that members of Congress, 
being paid their salaries from the federal treasury, would 
become too independent of their constituents. Federal col- 
lectors of revenue, moreover, would not be so likely to act 
with moderation and justice as collectors appointed by the 
state. Then it was very doubtful whether the people could 
support the expense of an 
elaborate federal govern- 
ment. They were already 
scarcely able to pay their 
town, county, and state tax- 
es ; was it to be supposed 
they could bear the addi- 
tional burden with which 
federal taxation would load 
them ? Then the compro- 
mise on the slave-trade was 
fiercely attacked. They did 
not wish to have a hand in 
licensing this nefarious traf- 
fic for twenty years. But 
it was urged, on the other 

hand, that by prohibiting the foreign slave-trade after 1808 
the Constitution was really dealing a death-blow to slavery ; 
and this opinion prevailed. 

During the whole course of the discussion, observed the 
Rev. Samuel West of New Bedford, it seemed to be taken 
for granted that the federal government was going to be 
put into the hands of crafty knaves. " I wish," said he, 




^c^^^^^^^9f^^^ 



344" THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

" that the gentlemen who have started so many possible 
objections would try to show us that what they so much 
deprecate is probable. . . . Because power way be abused, 
shall we be reduced to anarchy ? What hinders our state 
legislatures from abusing their powers? . . . May we not 
rationally suppose that the persons we shall choose to ad- 
minister the government will be, in general, good men ? " 
General Thompson said he was surprised to hear such an 
argument from a clergyman, who was professionally bound 
to maintain that all men were totally depraved. For his 
part he believed they were so, and he could prove it from 
the Old Testament. "I would not trust them," echoed 
Abraham White of Bristol, " though every one of them 
should be a Moses." 

The feeling of distrust was strongest among the farmers 
from the mountain districts. As Rufus King said, they 
objected, not so much to the Constitution as to the men who 
made it and the men who sang its praises. They hated 
lawyers, and were jealous of wealthy merchants. "These 
lawyers," said Amos Singletary, "and men of learning, and 
moneyed men that talk so finely and gloss over matters so 
smoothly, to make us poor illiterate people swallow the pill, 
expect to get into Congress themselves. They mean to be 
managers of the Constitution. They mean to get all the 
money into their hands, and then they will swallow up us 
little folk, like the great Leviathan, Mr. President ; yes, just 
as the whale swallowed up Jonah." Here a more liberal- 
minded farmer, Jonathan Smith of Lanesborough, rose to 
reply with references to the Shays rebellion, which presently 
called forth cries of " Order ! " from some of the members. 
Samuel Adams said the gentleman was quite in order, — 
, , let him go on in his own way. " I am a plain 

Speech of => -^ ^ 

a Berkshire man," said Mr. Smith, "and am not used to speak 
in public, but I am going to show the effects of 
anarchy, that you may see why I wish for good government. 
Last winter people took up arms, and then, if you went to 
speak to them, you had the musket of death presented to 



1788 



CROWNING THE WORK 



345 



your breast. They would rob you of your property, threaten 
to burn your houses, oblige you to be on your guard night 
and day. Alarms spread from town to town, families were 
broken up ; the tender mother would cry, * Oh, my son is 
among them ! What shall I do for my child ? ' Some 
were taken captive ; children taken out of their schools and 
carried away. . . . How dreadful was this ! Our distress 
was so great that we should have been glad to snatch at 
anything that looked like a government. . . . Now, Mr. 




TOMB OF JONATHAN SMITH 

President, when I saw this Constitution, I found that it was 
a cure for these disorders. I got a copy of it, and read it 
over and over. ... I did not go to any lawyer, to ask his 
opinion ; we have no lawyer in our town, and we do well 
enough without. My honourable old daddy there [pointing 
to Mr. Singletary] won't think that I expect to be a Con- 
gressman, and swallow up the liberties of the people. I 
never had any post, nor do I want one. But I don't think 
the worse of the Constitution because lawyers, and men of 
learning, and moneyed men are fond of it. I am not of such 
a jealous make. They that are honest men themselves are 



346 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

not apt to suspect other people. . . . Brother farmers, let 
us suppose a case, now. Suppose you had a farm of 50 
acres, and your title was disputed, and there was a farm of 
5,000 acres joined to you that belonged to a man of learn- 
ing, and his title was involved in the same difficulty : would 
you not be glad to have him for your friend, rather than to 
stand alone in the dispute ? Well, the case is the same. 
These lawyers, these moneyed men, these men of learning, 
are all embarked in the same cause with us, and we must 
all sink or swim together. Shall we throw the Constitution 
overboard because it does not please us all alike ? Suppose 
two or three of you had been at the pains to break up a 
piece of rough land and sow it with wheat : would you let it 
lie waste because you could not agree what sort of a fence 
to make ? Would it not be better to put up a fence that did 
not please every one's fancy, rather than keep disputing 
about it until the wild beasts came in and devoured the 
crop ? Some gentlemen say. Don't be in a hurry ; take 
time to consider. I say. There is a time to sow and a time 
to reap. We sowed our seed when we sent men to the 
Federal Convention, now is the time to reap the fruit of our 
labour ; and if we do not do it now, I am afraid we shall 
never have another opportunity." 




It may be doubted whether all the eloquence of Fisher 
Ames could have stated the case more forcibly than it was 
put by this plain farmer from the Berkshire hills. Upon 
Ames, with King, Parsons, Bowdoin, and Strong, fell the 
principal work in defending the Constitution. For the first 
two weeks, Samuel Adams scarcely opened his 

Attitude of , , , . , • , • i • 

Samuel mouth, but listened with anxious care to everything 
^^^ that was said on either side. The convention was 
so evenly divided that there could be no doubt that his sin- 
gle voice would decide the result. Every one eagerly 



CROWNING THE WORK 



347 



awaited his opinion. In the debate on the two years' term 
of members of Congress, he had asked Caleb Strong the 
reason why the Federal Convention had decided upon so 
long a term ; and when it was explained as a necessary com- 




One ^/^Delegate s /^?nA P?vvm^ecfl^[x^^Acmise.x TS -Eat. 




348 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

promise between the views of so many delegates, he replied, 
" I am satisfied." " Will Mr, Adams kindly say that again } " 
asked one of the members. " I am satisfied," he repeated ; 
and not another word was said on the subject in all those 
weeks. So profound was the faith of this intelligent and 
skeptical and independent people in the sound judgment and 
unswerving integrity of the Father of the Revolution ! As 

the weeks went by, and the issue 
seemed still dubious, the work- 
ingmen of Boston, shipwrights 
and brass - founders and other 
mechanics, decided to express 
-.— «.-,«»^ their opinion in a way that they 

|^'|C|ffj' * (^ knew Samuel Adams would 

heed. They held a meeting at 
SIGN OF GREEN DRAGON TAVERN ^he Grecu Dragou tavern, passed 

resolutions in favour of the Con- 
stitution, and appointed a committee, with Paul Revere at 
its head, to make known these resolutions to the great pop- 
ular leader. When Adams had read the paper, he asked of 
Paul Revere, " How many mechanics were at the Green 
Dragon when these resolutions passed .^ " "More, sir, than 
the Green Dragon could hold." "And where were the rest, 
Mr. Revere.''" "In the streets, sir." "And how many 
were in the streets ?" " More, sir, than there are stars in 
the sky." 

Between Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson there were 
several points of resemblance, the chief of which was an 
intense faith in the sound common sense of the mass of the 
people. This faith was one of the strongest attributes of 
both these great men. It has usually been supposed that it 
was this incident of the meeting at the Green Dragon that 
determined Adams's final attitude in the state convention. 
Unquestionably, such a demonstration must have had great 
weight with him. But at the same time the affair was 
taking such a turn as would have decided him, even without 
the aid of this famous mass-meeting. The long delay in the 



1788 CROWNING THE WORK 349 

decision of the Massachusetts convention had carried the 
excitement to fever heat throughout the country. Not only 
were people from New Hampshire and New York and 
naughty Rhode Island waiting anxiously about Boston to 
catch every crumb of news they could get, but intrigues were 
going on, as far south as Virginia, to influence the result. 
On the 2ist of January the " Boston Gazette" came out with 




a warning, headed by enormous capitals with three exclama- 
tion-points : " Bribery and Corruption ! ! ! The most diabol- 
ical plan is on foot to corrupt the members of the convention 
who oppose the adoption of the new Constitution. Large 
sums of money have been brought from a neighbouring state 



3SO THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

for that purpose, contributed by the wealthy. If so, is it 
not probable there may be collections for the same accursed 
purpose nearer home } " No adequate investigation ever 
determined whether this charge was true or not. We may 
hope that it was ill-founded ; but our general knowledge of 
human nature must compel us to admit that there may have 
been a grain of truth in it. But what was undeniable was 
that Richard Henry Lee wrote a letter to Gerry, urging that 
Massachusetts should not adopt the Constitution without 
insisting upon sundry amendments ; and in order to consider 
these amendments, it was suggested that there should be 
another Federal Convention. At this anxious crisis, Wash- 
Washing- ington suddenly threw himself into the breach with 
lu"s^ugges- that infallible judgment of his which always saw 
tion ^hg ^y^y ^Q victory. " If another Federal Conven- 

tion is attempted," said Washington, " its members will be 
more discordant, and will agree upon no general plan. The 
Constitution is the best that can be obtained at this time. 
. . . The Constitution or disunion are before us to choose 
from. If the Constitution is our choice, a constitutional 
door is open for amendments, and they may be adopted in a 
peaceable manner, without tumult or disorder." 

When this advice of Washington's reached Boston, it set 
in motion a train of events which soon solved the difficulty, 
both for Massachusetts and for the other states which had 
not yet made up their mind. Chief among the objections to 
the Constitution had been the fact that it did not contain a 
bill of rights. It did not guarantee religious liberty, freedom 
of speech and of the press, or the right of the people peace- 
fully to assemble and petition the government for a redress 
of grievances. It did not provide against the quartering of 
soldiers upon the people in time of peace. It did not pro- 
vide against general search-warrants, nor did it securely 
prescribe the methods by which individuals should be held 
to answer for criminal offences. It did not even provide 
that nobody should be burned at the stake or stretched on 
the rack, for holding peculiar opinions about the nature of 



1788 CROWNING THE WORK 351 

God or the origin of evil. That such objections to the 
Constitution seem strange to us to-day is partly due to the 
determined attitude of the men who, amid all the troubles 
of the time, would not consent to any arrangement from 
which such safeguards to free thinking and free living 
should be omitted. The friends of the Constitution in Bos- 
ton now proposed that the convention, while adopting it, 
should suggest sundry amendments containing the essential 
provisions of a bill of rights. It was not intended that 
the ratification should be conditional. Under the circum- 
stances, a conditional ratification might prove as disastrous 
as rejection. It might lead to a second Federal Conven- 
tion, in which the good work already accomplished might 
be undone. The ratification was to be absolute, and the 
amendments were offered in the hope that action would be 
taken upon them as soon as the new government should go 
into operation. There could be little doubt that the sug- 
gestion would be heeded, not only from the importance of 
Massachusetts in the Union, but also from the fact that Vir- 
ginia and other states would be sure to follow her example 
in suggesting such amendments. This forecast proved 
quite correct, and it was in this way that the first ten 
amendments originated, which were acted on by Congress 
in 1790, and became part of the Constitution in 1791. 

As soon as this plan had been matured, Hancock pro- 
posed it to the convention ; the hearty support of Adams 
was immediately insured, and within a week from that time, 
on the 6th of February, the Constitution was ratified by the 
narrow majority of 187 votes against 168. On 
that same day Jefferson, in Paris, wrote to Madi- setts rati- 
son : " I wish with all my soul that the nine first posin^g°' 
conventions may accept the new Constitution, to amend- 

-' 1^ ' ments, 

secure to us the good it contains ; but I equally Feb. 6, 
wish that the four latest, whichever they may 
be, may refuse to accede to it till a declaration of rights be 
annexed ; but no objection to the new form must produce 
a schism in our Union." But as soon as he heard of the 





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354 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 



CHAP. VII 



action of Massachusetts, he approved it as preferable to his 
own idea, and he wrote home urging Virginia to follow the 
example. 

Massachusetts was thus the sixth state to ratify the Con- 
stitution. On that day the name of the Long Lane by the 
meeting-house where the convention had sat was changed 
to Federal Street. The Boston people, said Henry Knox, 




FEDERAL STREET CHURCH, BOSTON 



had quite lost their senses with joy. The two counties of 
Worcester and Berkshire had given but 14 yeas against 59 
nays, but the farmers went home declaring that they should 
cheerfully abide by the decision of the majority. Not a 
murmur was heard from any one. 

About the time that the Massachusetts convention broke 
up, that of New Hampshire assembled at Exeter ; but after 
a brief discussion it was decided to adjourn until June, in 
order to see how the other states would act. On the 21st 



1788 CROWNING THE WORK 355 

of April the Maryland convention assembled at Annapolis ; 
and Washington expressed a hope that it would not adjourn 
without coming to a decision, for the Antifederalists were 
gloating over the postponement in New Hampshire. Their 
glee was short-lived, however. Some of Maryland's strong- 
est men, such as Luther Martin and Samuel Chase, 

Maryland 

were Antifederalists ; but their efforts were of no ratifies, 
avail. After a session of five days the Constitu- ^"^ 
tion was ratified by a vote of 63 to 11. Whatever damage 
New Hampshire might have done was thus more than made 
good. 

The eyes of the whole country were now turned upon the 
eighth state, South Carolina. Her convention was to meet 
at Charleston on the 12th of May, the anniversary of the 
day on which General Lincoln had surrendered that city to 
Sir Henry Clinton ; but there had been a decisive prelim- 
inary struggle in the legislature in January. The most 
active of the Antifederalists was Rawlins Lowndes, who 
had opposed the Declaration of Independence. Lowndes 
was betrayed into silliness. "We are now," said he, "under 
a most excellent constitution, — a blessing from Heaven, 
that has stood the test of time [! !], and given us liberty and 
independence ; yet we are impatient to pull down that fab- 
ric which we raised at the expense of our blood." This was 
not very convincing to the assembly, most of the members 
knowing full well that the fabric had not stood the test of 
time, but had already tumbled in by reason of its vicious 
construction. A more effective plea was that which re- 
ferred to the slave-trade. " What cause is there," said 
Lowndes, "for jealousy of our importing negroes.'' Why 
confine us to twenty years .-' Why limit us at all ? This 
trade can be justified on the principles of religion Debates in 
and humanity. They do not like our having slaves c^a^rcfnna^ 
because they have none themselves, and therefore legislature 
want to exclude us from this great advantage." Cotesworth 
Pinckney replied : " By this settlement we have secured an 
unlimited importation of negroes for twenty years. The 



356 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

general government can never emancipate them, for no such 
authority is granted, and it is admitted on all hands that 
the general government has no powers but what are ex- 
pressly granted by the Constitution. We have obtained a 
right to recover our slaves in whatever part of the country 
they may take refuge, which is a right we had not before. 
In short, considering all circumstances, we have made the 
best terms in our power for the security of this species of 
property. We would have made better if we could ; but, 
on the whole, I do not think them bad." 

Perhaps Pinckney would not have assumed exactly this 
tone at Philadelphia, but at Charleston the argument was 
convincing. Lowndes then sounded the alarm that the New 
England states would monopolize the carrying-trade and 
charge ruinous freights, and he drew a harrowing picture of 
warehouses packed to bursting with rice and indigo spoiling 
because the owners could not afford to pay the Yankee 
skippers' prices for carrying their goods to market. But 
Pinckney rejoined that a Yankee shipmaster in quest of 
cargoes would not be likely to ruin his own chances for get- 
ting them, and he called attention to the great usefulness of 
the eastern merchant marine as affording material for a navy, 
and thus contributing to the defence of the country. Finally 
Lowndes put in a plea for paper money, but with little suc- 
cess. The result of the debate set the matter so clearly 
before the people that a great majority of Federalists were 
elected to the convention. Among them were Gadsden, the 
Rutledges and the Pinckneys, Moultrie, and William Wash- 
ington, who had become a citizen of the state from which he 
had helped to expel the British invader. The Antifederalists 
were largely represented by men from the upland counties, 
belonging to a population in which there was considerable 
likeness all along the Appalachian chain of mountains, from 
Pennsylvania to the southern extremity of the range. There 
were among them many "moonshiners," as they were called, 
— distillers of illicit whiskey, — and they did not relish the 
idea of a federal excise. At their head was Thomas Sumter, 



1 



1788 CROWNING THE WORK 357 

a convert to the scheme for a southern confederacy. Their 
policy was one of delay and obstruction, but it availed them 
little, for on the 23d of May, after a session of south Car- 
eleven days. South Carolina ratified the Consti- fieT^iay'a- 
tution by a vote of 149 against 73. 

The astute policy of the Federal Convention in adopting 
the odious compromise over the slave-trade was now about 




/>? 



e^^ 



t^a^r^y^fO^ 



c:^ 



to bear fruit. In Virginia there was a nascent sentiment in 
favour of establishing a separate southern confederacy. By 
the action of South Carolina all such possible schemes were 
now nipped in the bud. Of the states south of Mason and 
Dixon's line, three had now ratified the Constitution, so that 
any separate confederacy could now consist only of 
Virginia and North Carolina. The reason for this effect upon 
short-lived separatist feeling in Virginia was to be "^^'"'^ 
found in the complications which had grown out of the 
attempt of Spain to close the Mississippi River. It will be 



358 THE CRITICAL PERIOD ' chap, vii 

remembered that only two years before Jay had actually 
recommended to Congress that the right to navigate the 
lower Mississippi be surrendered for twenty-five years, in 
exchange for a favourable commercial treaty with Spain. 
The New England states, caring nothing for the distant 
Mississippi, supported this measure in Congress ; and this 
narrow and selfish policy naturally created alarm in Virginia, 
which, in her district of Kentucky, touched upon the great 
river. Thus to the vague dread felt by the southern states 
in general, in the event of New England's controlling the 
commercial policy of the government, there was added, in 
Virginia's case, a specific fear. If the New England people 
were thus ready to barter away the vital interests of a remote 
part of the country, what might they not do ? Would they 
ever stop at anything so long as they could go on building up 
their commerce .'* This feeling strongly influenced Patrick 
Henry in his opposition to the Constitution ; ^ and we have 
seen how Randolph and Mason, in the Federal Convention, 
were so disturbed at the power given to Congress to regu- 
late commerce by a simple majority of votes that they 
refused to set their names to the Constitution. They 
alleged further reasons for their refusal, but this was the 
chief one. They wanted a two thirds vote to be required, 
in order that the South might retain the means of protect- 
ing itself. Under these circumstances the opposition to the 
Constitution was very strong, and but for the action of South 
Carolina the party in favour of a separate confederacy might 
have been capable of doing much mischief. As it was, since 
that party had actively intrigued in South Carolina and 
Maryland, the ratification of the Constitution by both these 
states was a direct rebuff. It quite demoralized the advo- 
cates of secession. The paper-money men, moreover, were 

- There were some who suspected Henry of working in favour of the 
scheme for a separate southern confederacy. See Madison's Works, i. 
388 ; Bancroft's History of the Constitution, ii. 465. But clearly he did 
not go so far as this. See Elliott's Debates, iii. 57, 63, 161 ; Henry's 
Patrick Henry, ii. 332; Tyler's Patrick Henry, 288. 



1788 



CROWNING THE WORK 



359 



handicapped by the fact that two of the most powerful 
AntifederaUsts, Mason and Lee, were determined opponents 
of a paper currency, so that this subject had to be dropped 
or very gingerly dealt with. The strength of the Antifed- 
eralists, though impaired by these causes, was still very 
great. The contest was waged with all the more intensity 
of feeling because, since eight states had now adopted the 
Constitution, the verdict of Virginia would be decisive. 
The convention met at Richmond on the 2d of June, and 




V <^^dirruuS^r.o[£e4Trn 



Edmund Pendleton was chosen president. Foremost among 
the Antifederalists was Patrick Henry, whose elo- Debates in 
quence was now as zealously employed against the g'jnja con- 
new government as it had been in bygone days vention 
against the usurpations of Great Britain. He was supported 
by George Mason, as well as by Benjamin Harrison and 
John Tyler, the fathers of two future presidents, and James 
Monroe, who was to be president himself ; and he could 



I' 



360 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

count on the votes of most of the delegates from the midland 
counties, from the south bank of the James River, and from 
Kentucky, But the united talents of the opposition had no 
chance of success in a conflict with the genius and tact of 
Madison, who at one moment crushed, at another conciliated, 
his opponent, but always won the day. To Madison, more 
than any other man, the Federalist victory was due. But 
he was ably seconded by Governor Randolph, whom he 
began by winning over from the opposite party, and by 
the favourite general and eloquent speaker, " Light-Horse 
Harry." Conspicuous in the ranks of Federalists, and unsur- 
passed in debate, was a tall and gaunt young man, with 
beaming countenance, eyes of piercing brilliancy, and an 
indescribable kingliness of bearing, who was by and by to 
become chief justice of the United States, and by his mas- 
terly and far-reaching decisions to win a place side by side 
with Madison and Hamilton among the founders of our 
national government. John Marshall, second to none among 
all the illustrious jurists of the English race, was then, at 
the age of thirty-three, the foremost lawyer in Virginia. He 
had already served for several terms in the state legislature, 
Madison ^^^^ ^^^ national career began in this convention, 
and Mar- where his arguments with those of Madison, rein- 

shall pre- '^ 

vail and forcing cach other, bore down all opposition. The 
radfieTf details of the controversy were much the same as 
June 25 jj^ ^j^g states already passed in review, save in so 
far as coloured by the peculiar circumstances of Virginia. 
After more than three weeks of debate, on the 25th of June, 
the question was put to vote, and the Constitution was rati- 
fied by the narrow majority of 89 against 79. Amendments 
were offered, after the example of Massachusetts, which had 
already been followed by South Carolina and the minority in 
Maryland ; and, as in Massachusetts, the defeated Antifed- 
eralists announced their intention to abide loyally by the 
result. 1 

1 There was much that was sound and wise in the Antifederalism 
of such men as Mason, Henry, and Tyler. Their dread of creating a 



1788 



CROWNING THE WORK 



361 



The discussion had lasted so long that Virginia lost the 
distinction of being the ninth state to ratify the Constitution. 
That honour had been reserved for New Hamp- ^^^ 
shire, whose convention had met on the anniversary Hampshire 
of Bunker Hill, and after_a four days' session, on ra^iffedr ^ 
the^2jst of June, had given its consent to the new J""^^' 
government by a vote of 57 against 46. The couriers from 
Virginia and those from New Hampshire, as they spurred 
their horses over long miles of dusty road, could shout to 




FROM THE INDEPENDENT CHRONICLE, liOSTON, JUNE 26, 1788 

each other the joyous news in passing. Though the ratifica- 
tion of New Hampshire had secured the necessary ninth 
state, yet the action of Virginia was not the less significant 
and decisive. Virginia was at that time, and for a quarter 
of a century afterward, the most populous state in the 
Union, and one of the greatest in influence. Even with the 
needed nine states all in hand, it is clear that the new gov- 
ernment could not have gone into successful operation with 
the leading state, the home of Washington himself, left out 
in the cold. The New Roof, as men were then fond of call- 
ing the Federal Constitution, must speedily have fallen in 

tyranny was almost prophetic of the base uses to which the doctrine of 
" implied powers " was to be put, when under the specious phrases of 
" internal improvements " and " protection to native industry " it inaug- 
urated the gigantic system of corruption and spohation which we have 
so long meekly endured. 



362 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

without this indispensable prop. When it was known that 
Virginia had ratified, it was felt that the victory was won, 
and the success of the new scheme assured. The 4th of 
July, 1788, witnessed such loud rejoicings as have perhaps 
never been seen before or since on American soil. In Phila- 
delphia there was a procession miles in length, in which 
every trade was represented, and wagons laden with imple- 
ments of industry or emblematic devices alternated with 
bands of music and gorgeous banners. There figured the 
New Roof, supported by thirteen columns, and there was to 
be seen the Ship of State, the good ship Constitution, made 
out of the barge which Paul Jones had taken from the 
shattered and blood-stained Serapis, after his terrible fight. 
As for the old scow Confederacy, Imbecility master, it was 
proclaimed she had foundered at sea, and " the sloop An- 
archy, when last heard from, was ashore on Union Rocks." 
All over the country there were processions and bonfires, 
and in some towns there were riots. In Providence the 
Federalists prepared a barbecue of oxen roasted whole, but 
a mob of farmers, led by three members of the state legisla- 
ture, attempted to disperse them, and were with some dif- 
ficulty pacified. In Albany the Antifederalists publicly 
burned the Constitution, whereupon a party of Federalists 
brought out another copy of it, and nailed it to the top of a 
pole, which they planted defiantly amid the ashes of the fire 
their opponents had made. Out of these proceedings there 
grew a riot, in which knives were drawn, stones were thrown, 
and blood was shed. 

Such incidents might have served to remind one that the 
end had not yet come. The difficulties were not yet sur- 
mounted, and the rejoicing was in some respects premature. 
It was now settled that the new government was to go into 
operation, but how it was going to be able to get along 
without the adhesion of New York it was not easy 
gieln^New to scc. It is true that New York then ranked only 
^"""^ as fifth among the states in population, but com- 

mercially and militarily she was the centre of the Union. 



1788 



CROWNING THE WORK 



363 



She not only touched at once on the ocean and the lakes, 
but she separated New England from the rest of the coun- 
try. It was rightly felt that the Union could never be 
cemented without this central state. So strongly were 
people impressed with this feeling that some went so far as 
to threaten violence. It was said that if New York did not 
come into the Union peacefully and of her own accord, she 
should be conquered and dragged in. That she would come 



\\ 











GEORGE CLINTON 



in peacefully seemed at first very improbable. When the 
state convention assembled at Poughkeepsie, on the 17th of 
June, more than two thirds of its members were avowed 
Antifederalists. At their head was the governor, George 
Clinton, hard-headed and resolute, the bitterest hater of the 
Constitution that could be found anywhere in the thirteen 



364 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 



CHAP. VII 



states. Foremost among his supporters were Yates and 
Lansing, with Melancton Smith, a man familiar with politi- 
cal history, and one of the ablest debaters in the country. 
On the Federalist side were such eminent men as Living- 




AN OLD VIEW OF POUGHKEEPSIE 



ston and Jay ; but the herculean task of vanquishing this 
great hostile majority, and converting it by sheer dint of 
argument into a majority on the right side, fell chiefly upon 
the shoulders of one man. 

But for Alexander Hamilton the decision of New York 
would unquestionably have been adverse to the Constitution. 
Nay, more, it is very improbable that, but for him, the good 
work would have made such progress as it had in the other 
states. To get the people to adopt the Constitution, it was 
above all things needful that its practical working should 
be expounded, in language such as every one could under- 
stand, by some writer endowed in a high degree with polit- 



1788 CROWNING THE WORK 365 

ical intelligence and foresight. Upon their return from 
the Federal Convention, Yates and Lansing had done all in 
their power to bring its proceedings into ill-repute. Pam- 
phlets and broadsides were scattered right and left. The 
Constitution was called the "triple-headed monster," and 
declared to be "as deep and wicked a conspiracy as ever 
was invented in the darkest ages against the liberties of a 
free people." It soon occurred to Hamilton that it would 
be well worth while to explain the meaning of all parts of 
the Constitution in a series of short, incisive essays. He 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



communicated his plan to Madison and Jay, who joined him 
in the work, and the result was the " Federalist," perhaps 
the most famous of American books, and surely one of 
the most profound and suggestive treatises on government 
that have ever been written. Of the eighty-five The " Fed- 
numbers originally published in the " Independent ^'"^''** " 
Gazetteer," under the common signature of " Publius," Jay 



366 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vn 

wrote five, Madison twenty-nine, and Hamilton fifty-one.^ 
Jay's papers related chiefly to diplomatic points, with which 
his experience abroad had fitted him to deal. The first 
number was written by Hamilton in the cabin of a sloop 
on the Hudson, in October, 1787 ; and they continued to 
appear, sometimes as often as three or four in a week, 
through the winter and spring. Madison would have con- 
tributed a larger share than he did had he not been called 
early in March to Virginia to fight the battle of the Consti- 
tution in that state. The essays were widely and eagerly 
read, and probably accomplished more toward insuring the 
adoption of the Constitution than anything else that was 
said or done in that eventful year. They were hastily writ- 
ten, — struck out at white heat by men full of their subject. 
Doubtless the authors did not realize the grandeur of the 
literary work they were doing, and among the men of the 
time there were few who foresaw the immortal fame which 
these essays were to earn. It is said of one of the senators 
in the first Congress that he made the memorandum, " Get 
the ' Federalist,' if I can, without buying it. It is n't worth 
it." But for all posterity the " Federalist " must remain the 
most authoritative commentary upon the Constitution that 
can be found ; for it is the joint work of the principal author 
of that Constitution and of its most brilliant advocate. 

In nothing could the flexibleness of Hamilton's intellect, 
or the genuineness of his patriotism, have been more finely 
shown than in the hearty zeal and transcendent ability with 
which he now wrote in defence of a plan of government so 
different from what he would himself have proposed. He 
made Madison's thoughts his own, until he set them forth 
with force not inferior to Madison's. Yet no arguments 

' Attempts have been repeatedly made to claim for Hamilton a 
dozen or more of the numbers written by Madison ; but there is no 
good ground for such a claim. The arguments of Mr. E. G. Bourne, 
in American Historical Review, i. 443-460, 682-685, seem finally deci- 
sive. See, also, the excellent note in Bancroft's History of the United 
States, New York, 1886, vi. 452. 



CROWNING THE WORK 



367 



could possibly be less chargeable with partisanship than the 
arguments of the " Federalist." The judgment is as dis- 
passionate as could be shown in a philosophical treatise. 
The tone is one of grave and lofty eloquence, apt to move 




C)^^^:^^ij^^2-y^^^^^ 




even to tears the reader who is fully alive to the stupen- 
dous issues that were involved in the discussion. Hamil- 
ton was supremely endowed with the faculty of imagining, 
with all the circumstantial minuteness of concrete reality, 
political situations different from those directly before him ; 
and he put this rare power to noble use in tracing out the 
natural and legitimate working of such a Constitution as 
that which the Federal Convention had framed. 



368 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

When it came to defending the Constitution before the 
hostile convention at Poughkeepsie, he had before him as 
arduous a task as ever fell to the lot of a parliamentary 
debater. It was a case where political management was 
out of the question. The opposition were too numerous to 
be silenced, or cajoled, or bargained with. They must be 
^converted. With an eloquence scarcely equalled before or 
since in America until Webster's voice was heard, Hamilton 
argued week after week, till at last Melancton Smith, the 
foremost debater of Clinton's party, broke away, and came 
over to the Federalist side. It was like crushing the centre 
of a hostile army. After this the Antifederalist forces were 
confused and easily routed. The decisive struggle was over 
the question whether New York could ratify the Constitu- 
tion conditionally, reserving to herself the right to withdraw 
from the Union in case the amendments upon which she 
had set her heart should not be adopted. Upon this point 
Hamilton reinforced himself with the advice^ of Madison, 
who had just returned to New York. Could a state once 
adopt the Constitution, and then withdraw from the Union 
if not satisfied .-* Madison's reply was prompt and decisive. 
No, such a thing could never be done. A state which had 
once ratified was in the federal bond forever. The 
wins the Constitution could not provide for nor contem- 
Ind°New platc its own overthrow. There could be no such 
York rati- thing: as 3. Constitutional right of secession. When 

f5esjuly26 ^ ° 

Melancton Smith deserted the Antifederalists on 
this point, the victory was won, and on the 26th of July 
New York ratified the Constitution by the bare majority of 
30 votes against 27. Rejoicings were now renewed through- 
out the country. In the city of New York there was an 
immense parade, and as the emblematic federal ship — the 
Ship of State — was drawn through the streets, with Ham- 
ilton's name emblazoned on the vehicle that supported her, 
it was doubtless the proudest moment of the young states- 
man's life. 

New York, however, clogged her acceptance by propos- 



CROWNING THE WORK 



369 



ing, a few days afterward, that a second Federal Convention 
be called for considering the amendments suggested by the 
various states. The proposal was supported by the Virginia 
legislature, but Massachusetts and Pennsylvania opposed it, 




PARADE IN NEW YORK IN HONOUR OF THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTI- 
TUTION, 17SS 



as having a dangerous tendency to reopen the whole dis- 
cussion and unsettle everything. The proposal fell to the 
ground. People were weary of the long dispute, and turned 
their attention to electing representatives to the first Con- 
gress. With the adhesion of New York all serious anxiety 
came to an end. The new government could be put in 
operation without waiting for North Carolina and Rhode 
Island to make up their minds. The North Caro- 
lina convention met on the 21st of July, and ad- 
journed on the I St of August without coming to 
any decision. The same objections were raised 
as in Virginia ; and besides, the paper-money party 
was here much stronger than in the neighbouring state. In 
Rhode Island paper money was the chief difficulty ; that 
state did not even take the trouble to call a convention. It 



The lag- 
gard states. 
North 
Carolina 
and Rhode 
Island 



370 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

was not until the 21st of November, 1789, after Washing- 
ton's government had been several months in operation, that 
North Carolina joined the. Federal Union. Rhode Island 
did not join till the 29th of May, 1790. If she had waited 
but a few months longer^ Vermont, the first state not of the 
original thirteen, would have come in before her. 

The autumn of 1788 was a season of busy but peaceful 
electioneering. That remarkable body, the Continental 
Congress, in putting an end to its troubled existence, de- 
creed that presidential electors should be chosen on the 
first Wednesday of January, 1789, that the electors should 
meet and cast their votes for president on the first Wednes- 
day in February, and that the Senate and House of Re- 
presentatives should assemble on the first Wednesday in 
March. This latter day fell, in 1789, on the 4th of the 
month, and accordingly, three years afterward, Congress 
took it for a precedent, and decreed that thereafter each 
new administration should begin on the 4th of March. It 
was further decided, after some warm debate, that until the 
site for the proposed federal city could be selected and 
built upon, the seat of the new government should be the 
city of New York. 

In accordance with these decrees, presidential elections 
were held on the first Wednesday in January. The Anti- 
First presi- federalists were still potent for mischief in New 
ieciSn, York, with the result that, just as that state had 
Jan. 7, 1789 not joined in the Declaration of Independence 
until after it had been proclaimed to the world, and just as 
she refused to adopt the Federal Constitution until after 
more than the requisite number of states had ratified it, so 
now she failed to choose electors, and had nothing to do 
with the vote that made Washington our first president. 
The other ten states that had ratified the Constitution all 
chose electors. But things moved slowly and cumbrously 
at this first assembling of the new government. The House 
of Representatives did not succeed in getting a quorum 
together until the ist of April. On the 6th, the Senate 






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1789 CROWNING THE WORK 371 

chose John Langdon for its president, and the two houses 
in concert counted the electoral votes. There were 69 in 
all, and every one of the 69 was found to be for George 
Washington of Virginia. For the second name on the list 
there was nothing like such unanimity. It was to be ex- 
pected that the other name would be that of a citizen of 
Massachusetts, as the other leading state in the Union. 
The two foremost citizens of Massachusetts bore the same 
name, and were cousins. There would have been most 
striking poetic justice in coupling with the name of Wash- 
ington that of Samuel Adams, since these two men had 
been indisputably foremost in the work of achieving the 
independence of the United States. But for the hesitancy 
of Samuel Adams in indorsing the Federal Constitution, he 
would very likely have been our first vice-president and our 
second president. But the wave of federalism had now 
begun to sweep strongly over Massachusetts, carrying 
everything before it, and none but the most ardent Feder- 
aHsts had a chance to meet in the electoral college. Voices 
were raised in behalf of Samuel Adams. While we honour 
the American Fabius, it was said, let us not forget the 
American Cato. It was urged by some, with much truth, 
that but for his wise and cautious action in the Massachu- 
setts convention, the good ship Constitution would have 
been fatally wrecked upon the reefs of Shaysism. His 
course had not been that of an obstructionist, like that of his 
old friends Henry and Lee and Gerry ; but at the critical 
moment — one of the most critical in all that wonderful 
crisis — he had thrown his vast influence, with decisive 
effect, upon the right side. All this is plain enough to the 
historian of to-day. But in the political fervour of the elec- 
tion of 1789, the fact most clearly visible to men was that 
Samuel Adahis had hesitated, and perhaps made things 
wait. These points came out most distinctly on the issue 
of his election to the Federal Congress, in which he was 
defeated by the youthful Fisher Ames, whose eloquence in 
the state convention had been so conspicuous and useful ; 



372 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 



CHAP. VII 




WASHINGTON'S TKIUMTHAI. JOURNEY TO NEW YORK 



but they serve to explain thoroughly why he was not put 
upon the presidential list along with Washington. His 
cousin, John Adams, had just returned from his mission to 
England, weary and disgusted with the scanty respect which 
he had been able to secure for a feeble league of states that 
could not make good its own promises. His services during 
the Revolution had been of the most splendid sort : and 
after Washington, he was the second choice of the electoral 
college, receiving 34 votes, while John Jay of New York, 
his nearest competitor, received only 9. John Adams was 
accordingly declared vice-president. 



1789 CROWNING THE WORK 373 

On the 14th of April Washington was informed of his 
election, and on the next day but one he bid adieu again to 
his beloved home at Mount Vernon, where he had hoped 
to pass the remainder of his days in that rural peace and 
quiet for which no one yearns like the man who is bur- 
dened with greatness and fame unsought for. The position 
to which he was summoned was one of unparalleled splen- 
dour, — how splendid we can now realize much better than 
he, and our grandchildren will realize it better than we, — 
the position of first ruler of what was soon to become at 
once the strongest and the most peace-loving people upon 
the face of the earth. As he journeyed toward New York, 
his thoughts must have been busy with the arduous pro- 
blems of the time. Already, doubtless, he had marked out 
the two great men, Jefferson and Hamilton, for his chief 
advisers : the one to place us in a proper attitude before 
the mocking nations of Europe ; the other to restore our 
shattered credit, and enlist the moneyed interests of all the 
states in the success of the Federal Union. Washington's 
temperament was a hopeful one, as befitted a man of his 
strength and dash. But in his most hopeful mood he could 
hardly have dared to count upon such a sudden demon- 
stration of national strength as was about to ensue upon 
the heroic financial measures of Hamilton. His medita- 
tions on this journey we may well believe to have been 
solemn and anxious enough. But if he could gather added 
courage from the often-declared trust of his fellow-country- 
men, there was no lack of such comfort for him. At every 
town through which he passed, fresh evidences of it were 
gathered, but at one point on the route his strong nature 
was especially wrought upon. At Trenton, as he crossed 
the bridge over the Assunpink Creek, where twelve years 
ago, at the darkest moment of the Revolution, he had out- 
witted Cornwallis in the most skilful of stratagems, and 
turned threatening defeat into glorious victory, — at this 
spot, so fraught with thrilling associations, he was met by a 
party of maidens dressed in white, who strewed his path 



374 THE CRITICAL PERIOD chap, vii 

with sweet spring flowers, while triumphal arches in softest 
green bore inscriptions declaring that he who had watched 
over the safety of the mothers could well be trusted to pro- 
tect the daughters. On the 23d he arrived in New York, and 
was entertained at dinner by Governor Clinton. One week 
later, on the 30th, came the inauguration. It was one of 
inaugiira- ^^osQ magnificent days of clearest sunshine that 
wrsMng- sometimes make one feel in April as if summer 
ton, April had come. At noon of that day Washington went 
^° from his lodgings, attended by a military escort, to 

Federal Hall, at the corner of Wall and Nassau streets, 









INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON 



where his statue has lately been erected. The city was 
ablaze with excitement. A sea of upturned eager faces sur- 
rounded the spot, and as the hero appeared thousands of 
cocked hats were waved, while ladies fluttered their white 
handkerchiefs. Washington came forth clad in a suit of 
dark brown cloth of American make, with white silk hose 
and shoes decorated with silver buckles, while at his side 
hung a dress-sword. For a moment all were hushed in 
deepest silence, while the secretary of the Senate held forth 



1789 CROWNING THE WORK 375 

the Bible upon a velvet cushion, and Chancellor Livingston 
administered the oath of office. Then, before Washington 
had as yet raised his head, Livingston shouted, — and from 
all the vast company came answering shouts, — " Long live 
George Washington, President of the United States ! " 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 



The bibliography of tiie period covered in this book is very copi- 
ously and thoroughly treated in the seventh volume of Winsor's Narra- 
tive and Critical History of North America, Boston, 1888. For the 
benefit of the reader who may not have ready access to that vast store- 
house of information, the following brief notes may be of service. 

The best account of the peace negotiations is to be found in chapter 
ii. of Winsor's volume just cited, written by Hon. John Jay, who had 
already discussed the subject quite thoroughly in his Address before the 
New York Historical Society on its Seventy-Ninth Anniversary, Nov. 
27, 1883. Of the highest value are Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's Life 
of Lord Shelburne, 3 vols., London, 1875-76, and Adolphe de Circourt, 
Histoire de V action commune de la France et de VAmerique, etc., tome 
iii., Documents originanx inedits, Paris, 1876. See also Sparks, Diplo- 
matic Correspondence of the American Revolution, 12 vols., Boston, 
1829-30; Trescot's Diplomacy of the American Revolution, N. Y., 
1852; hymTin^s Diplomacy of the United States, Boston, 1826; Elliot's 
American Diplomatic Code, 2 vols., Washington, 1834; Chalmer's Col- 
lection of Treaties, 2 vols., London, 1790; Lord Stanhope's History oj 
England, vol. vii., London, 1853 ; Lecky's History of England,^ o\. iv., 
London, 1882; Lord John Russell's Memorials of Fox, 4 vols., London, 
1853-57; Albemarle's Rockingham and his Contemporaries, 2 vols., 
London, 1852 ; Walpole's Last fournals, 2 vols., London, 1859; Force's 
American Archives, 4th series, 6 vols., Washington, 1839-46; John 
Adams's Works, 10 vols., Boston, 1850-56; Rives's Life of Madison, 3 
vols., Boston, 1859-68 ; Madison's Letters and other Writings, 4 vols., 
Phila., 1865; the lives of Franklin, by Bigelow and Parton ; the lives 
of Jay, by Jay, Flanders, and Whitelocke; Morse's fohn Adams, Bos- 
ton, 1885 ; Correspondence of Geojge III. with Lord North, 2 vols., 
London, 1867 ; Wharton's Digest of International Law, Washington, 

1887, Appendix to vol. iii. ; Hale's Franklin in France, 2 vols., Boston, 

1888. The view of the treaty set forth in 1830 by Sparks, according to 
which Jay and Adams were quite mistaken in their suspicions of the 
French court, we may now regard as disposed of by the evidence pre- 
sented by Circourt and Fitzmaurice. It has led many writers astray, 
and even with all the lights which Mr. Bancroft has had, the account in 



378 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

the last revision of his History of the United States, \o\. v., N. Y., 1886, 
though in some respects one of the best to be found in the general his- 
tories, still leaves much to be desired. 

The general condition of the United States under the articles of 
confederation is well sketched in the sixth volume of Bancroft's final 
revision, and in Curtis's History of the Constitution, 2 vols., N. Y., 
1 861. An excellent summary is given in the first volume of Schouler's 
History of the United States tinder the Constitution, of which vols. i.-v. 
(revised ed., N. Y., 1894) have appeared. Mr. Schouler's book is sug- 
gestive and stimulating. The work most rich in details is Professor 
i\Ic Master's History of the People of the United States, of which the 
first volume rather more than covers the period 1 783-89. The author 
is especially deserving of praise for the diligence with which he has 
searched the newspapers and obscure pamphlets of the period. He 
has thus given much fresh life to the narrative, besides throwing valu- 
able light upon the thoughts and feelings of the men who lived under 
the "league of friendship." I take pleasure in acknowledging my 
indebtedness to Professor McMaster for several interesting illustrative 
details. Further general information as to the period of the Confed- 
eration may be found in Morse's admirable Life of Alexander Hamil- 
ton, 3d ed., 2 vols., Boston, 1882; Sumner's Alexander Hamilton, 
N. Y., 1890; J. C. Hamilton's Republic of the United States, 7 vols., 
Boston, 1879 ; Frothingham's Rise of the Republic, Boston, 1872, chap- 
ter xii.; Von Hoist's Constitutional History, 8 vols., Chicago, 1877-92, 
chapter i. ; Pitkin's History of the United States, 2 vols.. New Haven, 
1828, vol. ii.; Marshall's Life of Washington, 5 vols., Phila., 1805-07; 
fournals of Congress, 13 vols., Phila., iSoo; Secret fotirnals of Con- 
gress, 4 vols., Boston, 1820-21. 

On the loyalists and their treatment, the able essay by Rev. G. E. 
Ellis, in Winsor's seventh volume, is especially rich in bibliographical 
references. See also Sabine's Loyalists of the American Revohition, 
2 vols., Boston, 1864; Ryerson's Loyalists of America, 2 vols., Toronto, 
1880; Jones's Ne7a York during the Revolution, 2 vols., N. Y., 1879. 
Although chiefly concerned with events earlier than 1780, i\\t fournal 
and Letters of Samuel Curiven, 4th ed., Boston, 1864, and especially 
the Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson, 2 vols., Boston, 1884-86, 
are valuable in this connection. 

For the financial troubles the most convenient general survey is to 
be found in A. S. Bolles's Financial History of the United States, 
1 774-1 789, N. Y., 1879; Sumner's The Financier and the Finances of 
the American Revolution, 2 vols., N. Y., 1891 ; Sparks's Life of Gou- 
verneur Morris, 3 vols., Boston, 1832; Pelatiah Webster's Political 
Essays, Phila., 1791 ; Phillips's Colonial and Continental Paper Cur. 
rency, 2 vols., Roxbury, 1865-66; Varnum's Case of Trevett v. Weeden, 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 379 

Providence, 1787; Arnold's History of Rhode Island, 2 vols., 4th ed., 
Providence, 1894. The best account of the Shays rebellion is G. R. 
Minot's History of the Insurrecfiofis in Massachusetts, Worcester, 1788 : 
see also Barry's History of Massachusetts, 3 vols., Boston, 1855-57; 
Austin's Life of Gerry, 1 vols., Boston, 1828-29. A new and interest- 
ing account of the northwestern cessions and the Ordinance of 1787 is 
B. A. Hinsdale's Old Northwest, N. Y., 1888; see also Dunn's Indiana, 
Boston, 1888; CxiXltx's Life, fotirnal, and Correspondence of Manasseh 
Cutler, 2 vols., Cincinnati, 1887; Poole's The Ordinance of lySy, Cam- 
bridge, 1876. 

In i\\Q.fohns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political 
Science, the following articles bear especially upon subjects here treated 
and are worthy of careful study: II., v., vi., H. C. Adams, Taxation in 
the United States, 1789-1816; III., i., H. B. Adams, Maryland's 
Influence upon Land Cessions to the United States ; III., ix., x., Davis, 
American Constitutions ; IV., v., Jameson's hitroduction to the Consti- 
tutional and Political History of the Individual States j IV., vii.-ix., 
Shoshuke Sato's History of the Land Question in the United States ; 
VIII., i., ii., A. W. Small, The Beginnings of American Nationality ; 
IX., i. ii., Willoughby's Government and Administration of the United 
States. 

For the proceedings of the Federal Convention in framing the Con- 
stitution, and of the several state conventions in ratifying it, the great 
treasure-house of authoritative information is Elliot's Debates in the 
Conventions, 5 vols., originally published under the sanction of Con- 
gress in 1830-45; new reprint, Phila., 1888. The contents of the 
volumes are as follows : — 

I. Sundry preliminaiy papers, relating to the ante-revolutionary 
period, and the period of the Confederation; journal of the 
Federal Convention ; Yates's minutes of the proceedings ; the 
ofificial letters of Martin, Yates, Lansing, Randolph, Mason, and 
Gerry, in explanation of their several courses ; Jay's address to 
the people of New York ; and other illustrative papers. 
II., III., IV. Proceedings of the several state conventions ; with 
other documents, including the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions 
of 1798, and data relating thereto. 
V. Madison's journal of debates in the Congress of the Confederation, 
Nov. 4, 1782-June 21, 1783, and Feb. 19-April 25, 1787; Madi- 
son's journal of the Federal Convention ; letters from Madison to 
Washington, Jefferson, and Randolph, Sept. 178 7-Nov. 1788; 
and other papers. 
The best edition of the " Federalist " is by H. C. Lodge, N. Y., 1888. 
See also Story's Coin/nentaries on the Constitution, 4th ed., 3 vols., 
Boston, 1873; the works of Daniel Webster, 6 vols., Boston, 1851; 



38o BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

Hurd's Theory of our National Existence, Boston, 1881. The above 
works expound the Constitution as not a league between sovereign 
states but a fundamental law ordained by the people of the United 
States. The opposite view is presented in The Republic of Repub- 
lics, by P. C. Centz [Plain Common Sense, pseudonym of B. J. Sage of 
New Orleans], Boston, 188 1 ; the works of Calhoun, 6 vols., N. Y., 
1853-55; A. H. Stephens's War between the States, 2 vols., Phila., 
1 868 ; Jefferson Davis's Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, 
2 vols., N. Y., 1881. Bledsoe, Is Davis a Traitor ; or was Secession a 
Constitutional Right previous to the War of 1861 ? Baltimore, 1866. 

Several volumes of the "American Statesmen" contain interesting 
accounts of discussions in the various conventions, as Tyler's Patrick 
Henry, Hosmer's Samuel Adams, Lodge's Hafnilton, Magruder's 
Marshall, Roosevelt's Morris. Gay's Madison falls far below the 
general standard of this excellent and popular series. No satisfactory 
biography of Madison has yet been written, though the voluminous 
work of W. C. Rives contains much good material. For judicial inter- 
pretations of the Constitution one may consult B. R. Curtis's Digest of 
Decisions, 1 790-1 854; Flanders's Lives of the Chief fustices, Phila., 
1858 ; Marshall's Writings on the Federal Constitution, ed. Perkins, 
Boston, 1839; see also Pomeroy's Constitutional Law, N. Y., 1868; 
Wharton's Commentaries, Phila., 1884; Von Hoist's Calhoun, Boston, 
1882. Among critical and theoretical works, Fisher's Trial of the Con- 
stitution, Phila., 1862, and Lockwood's Abolition of the Presidency, N. 
Y., 1884, are variously suggestive ; Woodrow Wilson's Congressional 
Government, Boston, 1885, is a work of rare ability, pointing out the 
divergence which has arisen between the literary theory of our govern- 
ment and its practical working. Walter Bagehot's E?iglish Constitu- 
tion, revised ed., Boston, 1873, had already, in a profound and masterly 
fashion, exhibited the divergence between the literary theory and the 
actual working of the British government. Some points of weakness 
in the British system are touched in Albert Stickney's Tnce Republic, 
N. Y., 1879; ^^'^ his Democratic Government, N. Y., 1885 ; see also A. 
L. Lowell's Essays oti Government, Boston, 1890. The constitutional 
history of England is presented, in its earlier stages, with prodigious 
learning, by Dr. Stubbs, 3 vols., London, 1873-78, and in its later stages 
by Hallam, 2 vols., London, 1842, and Sir Erskine May, 2 vols., Boston, 
1862-63 ; see also S. R. Gardiner's Introduction to the Sttidy of Eng- 
lish History, London, 1881 ; Freeman's Growth of the English Con- 
stitiction, London, 1872 ; Comparative Politics, London, 1873 ; Some 
Impressions of the United States, London, 1883 ; Rudolph Gneist, 
History of the English Constitution, 2 vols., London, 1886; J. S. Mill, 
Representative Governrncnt, N. Y., 1862 ; Sir H. Maine, Popidar Gov- 
ernment, N. Y., 1886; Tocqueville's Democracy in America, 2 vols., 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 381 

Cambridge, 1863; Bryce's American Comf/tonwealth, 2 vols., N. Y., 
1888; Lecky's Democracy and Liberty, 2 vols., N. Y., 1876. 

See also Stevens's Sources of the Constitution of the United States, 
N. Y., 1894; Fisher's Evolution of the Constitution of the United 
States, Phila., 1897 ; Jameson, Essays in the Cotistitutional History of 
the United States, Boston, 1889 ; Cooley (and others). Constitutional 
Histo7y of the United States as seeii in the Development of A merican 
Law, N. Y., 1889; Curry, TJie Southern States of the American Union, 
N. Y., 1894; Stanwood's History of Presidential Elections, Boston, 
1888; Miss Follett, The Speaker of the House of Represefitatives, N. 
Y., 1896; Harding, The Contest over the Ratif cation of the Federal 
Constittition iti Massachusetts, N. Y., 1896; Houston's Critical Study 
of Nullif cation in South Carolina, N. Y., 1896. 

Much detailed information may be found in Henry's Life, Corre- 
spondence, and Speeches of Patrick Henry, 3 vols., N. Y., 1891 ; Lee's 
Life of Richard Henry Lee, 2 vols., Phila., 1825 ; Madison's Papers, 
etc., ed. Gilpin, 3 vols., N. Y., 1S41 ; Tyler's Letters and Times of the 
Tylers, vols, i., ii., Richmond, 1884-85, vol. iii., Williamsburg, 1897; 
Conway's Edmtind Randolph, N. Y., 1888; Conway's Life of Thomas 
Paine, 2 vols., N. Y., 1892; Grigsby's History of the Virginia Federal 
Convention (Va. Hist. Soc. Coll., N. S., ix., x.); Miss Rowland's Life, 
Correspondence, and Speeches of George Mason, 2 vols., N. Y., 1892; 
Miss Rowland's Life of Charles Cari'oll of Carrollton, 2 vols., N. Y., 
1897; McRee's Life of fames Lredell, 2 vols., N. Y. 1857; Stillt^'s Life 
and Times of fohn Dickitison, Phila., 1891 ; McMaster and Stone, 
Pennsylvania and the Federal Cotistitutioti, Phila., 1888; Miss Boudi- 
not's Life of E lias Boudinot, 2 vols., Boston, 1896; Miss Morris's 
Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, 2 vols., N. Y., 1888 ; King's 
Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, vols, i.-iv. issued, N. Y., 
1894-97, two more to come ; Jay's Correspo)idence and Public Papers, 
4 vols., N. Y., 1890-93 ; Wells's Life of Samiiel Adams, 3 vols., Bos- 
ton, 1865; Austin's Life of Gerry, 2 vols., Boston, 1828-29; Parsons's 
Memoir of Theophilus Parsons, Boston, 1859; Belknap's Minutes of 
the Convention of lySS (Ma^s. Hist. Soc. Proc, 1858); Federal Con- 
vention of Massachusetts. Debates, Resolutions, etc., Boston, 1788; 
Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonivealth of 
Massachusetts held in the year 1788, Boston, 1856; Staples, Rhode 
Ls land in the Continetital Congress, Providence, 1870; Walker, New 
Hampshire Federal Convention, Boston, 1888; Ford, Patnphlets on 
the Constitution, Brooklyn, 1892. 

A monograph of profound interest and indispensable to a correct 
understanding of the subject is Libby, The Geographical Distribution 
of the Vote of the Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution, Madi- 
son, Wis., 1894. 



382 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

I may also mention my own books, American Political Ideas, N. Y., 
1885; Civil Government in the United States, Boston, 1890; and my 
articles, " Great Britain," " House of Lords," and "House of Com- 
mons," in Lalor's Cyclopcedia of Political Science, 3 vols., Chicago, 
1882-84. That cyclopaedia contains also numerous articles on Ameri- 
can history by the late Prof. Alexander Johnston. One must stop 
somewhere, and I will conclude by saying that I do not know where 
one can find anything more richly suggestive than those articles of 
Professor Johnston, in whose premature death our country has sus- 
tained an irreparable loss. 



MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

The names of those who for various reasons were absent when the 
Constitution was signed are given in itahcs ; the names of those who 
were present, but refused to sign, are given in small capitals. 

New Hampshire John Langdon. 

Nicholas Oilman. 
Massachusetts Elbridge Gerry. 

Nathaniel Gorham. 

Rufus King. 

Caleb Strong. 
Connecticut William Samuel Johnson. 

Roger Sherman. 

Oliver Ellsivorth. 
New York Robert Yates. 

Alexander Hamilton. 

Johjt Lansing. 
New Jersey William Livingston. 

David Brearley. 

William Churchill Houston. 

William Paterson. 

Jonathan Dayton. 
Pennsylvania Benjamin Franklin. 

Thomas Mifflin. 

Robert Morris. 

George Clymer. 

Thomas Fitzsimmons. 

Jared Ingersoll. 

James Wilson. 

Gouverneur Morris. 
Delaware George Read. 

Gunning Bedford. 

John Dickinson. 

Richard Bassett. 

Jacob Broom. 
Maryland James McHenry. 

Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer. 

Daniel Carroll. 



384 MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

JoJi7i Francis Mercer. 

Luther Martin. 
Virginia George Washington. 

Edmund Randolph. 

John Blair. 

James Madison. 

George Mason. 

George Wythe. 

James McCliirg. 
North Carolina Alexander Martin. 

William Richardson Datne. 

William Blount. 

Richard Dobbs Spaight. 

Hugh Williamson. 
South Carolina John Rutledge. 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. 

Charles Pinckney. 

Pierce Butler. 
Georgia William Few. 

Abraham Baldwin. 

William Pierce. 

William Houston. 

Of those who signed their names to the Federal Constitution, the six 
following were signers of the Declaration of Independence : — 

Roger Sherman, 
Benjamin Franklin, 
Robert Morris, 
George Clymer, 
James Wilson, 
George Read. 

And the five following were signers of the Articles of Confedera- 
tion : — 

Roger Sherman, 
Robert Morris, 
Gouverneur Morris, 
John Dickinson, 
Daniel Carroll. 

The ten following were appointed as delegates to the Federal Conven- 
tion, but never took their seats : — 

New Hampshire John Pickering. 

Benjamin West. 
Massachusetts Francis Dana, 



MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 385 

New Jersey John> Nelson. 

Abraham Clark. 

Virginia Patrick Henry (declined). 

North Carolina Richard Caswell (resigned). 

Willie Jones (declined). 
Georgia George Walton. 

Nathaniel Pendleton. 

No delegates were appointed by Rhode Island. In a letter addressed 
to "the Honourable the Chairman of the General Convention," and 
dated" Providence, May it, 1787," several leading citizens of Rhode 
Island expressed their regret that their state should not be represented 
on so momentous an occasion. At the same time, says the letter, " the 
result of your deliberations ... we still hope may finally be approved 
and adopted by this state, for which we pledge our influence and best 
exertions." The letter was signed by John Brown, Joseph Nightingale, 
Levi Hall, Philip Allen, Paul Allen, Jabez Bowen, Nicholas Brown, 
John Jinkes, Welcome Arnold, William Russell, Jeremiah Olney, 
William Barton, and Thomas Lloyd Halsey. The letter was presented 
to the Convention on May 28th by Gouverneur Morris, and, " being 
read, was ordered to lie on the table for further consideration." See 
Elliot's Debates, v. 125. 

The Constitution was ratified by the thirteen states, as follows : — 

1. Delaware Dec. 6, 1787. 

2. Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787. 

3. New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787. 

4. Georgia Jan. 2, 1788. 

5. Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788. 

6. Massachusetts Feb. 6, 1788. 

7. Maryland April 28, 1788. 

8. South Carolina May 23, 1788. 

9. New Hampshire June 21, 1788. 

10. Virginia June 25, 1788. 

11. New York July 26, 1788. 

12. North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789. 

13. Rhode Island May 29, 1790. 



386 PRESIDENTS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 



PRESIDENTS OF THE CONTINENTAL 
CONGRESS 

1. Peyton Randolph of Virginia . Sept. 5, 1774. 

2. Henry Middleton of South Carolina Oct. 22, 1774. 

Peyton Randolph May 10, 1775. 

, 3. John Hancock of Massachusetts May 24, 1775. 

4. Henry Laurens of South Carolina Nov. i, 1777. 

^5. John Jay of New York Dec. 10, 1778. 

J 6. Samuel Huntington of Connecticut Sept. 28, 1779 

'7. Thomas McKean of Delaware July 10, 1781. 

■^ 8. John Hanson of Maryland Nov. 5, 1781. 

9. Elias Boudinot of New Jersey Nov. 4. 1782. 

t, 10. Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania Nov. 3, 17S3. 

J II. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia Nov. 30, 1784. 

<^ 12. Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts June 6, 1786. 

13. Arthur St. Clair of Pennsylvania Feb. 2, 1787. 

14. Cyrus Griffin of Virginia Jan. 22, 17S8. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Adams, Herbert, B., 206. 

Adams, John, arrives in Paris, 21 ; his indig- 
nation at the pusillanimous instructions from 
Congress, 34 ; condemns the Cincinnati, 
124; tries in vain to negotiate commercial 
treaty with Great Britain, 143-146; negoti- 
ates a treaty with Holland, 160 ; obtains a 
loan there, 161, 162 ; his interview with the 
envoy from Tripoli, 167; absent from the 
United States at the time of the Federal 
Convention, 242 ; elected vice-president of 
the United States, 372; portraits, 23, 42, 
163. 

Adams, Samuel, his devotion to local self-gov- 
ernment, S7, 338 ; his committees of corre- 
spondence, 95 ; opposes Washington's pro- 
posal for pensioning officers, 112; but at 
length supports the Commutation Act, iig; 
condemns the Cincinnati, 124 ; approves the 
conduct of the Massachusetts delegates, 147; 
opposes pardoning the ringleaders in the 
Shays insurrection, 200; not a delegate to 
the Federal Convention, 242; " the man of 
the town meeting," 33S ; in the Massachu- 
setts convention, 344, 346, 348 ; why not se- 
lected for the vice-presidency, 371 ; por- 
trait, 347. 

Albany, riot in, 362. 

Amendments to Constitution, 323, 351, 361. 

Ames, Fisher, 339, 346, 371 ; portrait, 340. 

Amis, North Carolinian trader, 226. 

Amphiktyonic council, 267. 

Annapolis convention, 232 ; view of state 
house, 233. 

Antagonisms between large and small states, 
262-272; between east and west, 274; be- 
tween north and south, 276-288. 

Antifederalist party, 329; in Pennsylvania, 
330; in Massachusetts, 336, 337, 344; in 
South Carolina, 357 ; in Virginia, 357-360 ; 
in New York, 362, 364, 370. 

Antipathies between states, 64. 

Aranda, Count, his prophecy, 18 ; portrait, ig. 

Aristides, pseudonym, 332. 

Aristocracy, 302. 

Aristotle, 242. 

Arkwright, Sir Richard, 28S. 

Armada, the Invincible, 253. 

Armchair, view and story of, 325. 

Armstrong, John, 114, 156; portrait, 155. 

Army, dread of, loq, 341, 342. 

Arnold, Benedict, 27, 112, 157. 

Asbury, Francis, portrait, 87. 

Ashburton, Lord, 6. 

Ashburton treaty, 25. 

Assemblies, 67. 

Assunpink Creek, 373. 

Augustine, 163. 

Backus, Rev. Isaac, 342. 

Bagehot, Walter, 311. 

Baldwin, Abraham, 270; portrait, 269. 



Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 228. 

Baptists persecuted in Virginia, 81. 

Barbary pirates, 162-167 

Barre, Isaac, 40; portrait, 41. 

Battery, New York, view from, 145. 

Bedford, Gunning, 268 ; portrait, 267. 

Bennington, 342. 

Bernard, Sir Francis, 318. 

Biennial elections, 346. 

Bill of rights demanded, 351. 

Blackstone, Sir William, 310, 311, 317. 

Blair, John, portrait, 309. 

Blount, William, portrait, 303. 

Boston in 1790, view of, 335. 

Boston Gazette, quoted, 349. 

Boudinot, Elias, portrait, 100. 

Boundaries of United States as settled by the 
treaty, 24. 

Bowdoin, James, 148, 196-201, 339, 346; por- 
trait, 201 ; facsimile of proclamation, 199. 

Bowen, Jabez, Washnigton's letter to, 370. 

Boyd, Lieutenant, 128. 

Braddock, Edward, 325. 

Bradshaw's Railway Guide, 1S2. 

Brearley, David, 246, 264 ; arms and auto- 
graph, 265. 

Bribery, charges of, 349. 

British army departs, 50. 

British Constitution compared with American, 
310-318. 

Budget for 1786, facsimile of, 107. 

Buff and blue colours, i. 

Burgesses, House of, in Virginia, 6S. 

Burke, .(Edanus, 124 ; facsimile title-page of 
his pamphlet, 123. 

Burke, Edmund, his sympathy with the Ameri- 
cans, 2 ; could not see the need for parlia- 
mentary reform, 6 ; his invective against 
Shelburne, 17 ; on the slave-trade, 74 ; por- 
trat, 73. 

Butler, Pierce, 277; portrait, 278. 

Cabinet, the president's, 320. 

Cabinet government, growth of, in England, 

316. 
Camden, Lord, 6. 

Campus Martins, Marietta, 223, 225. 
Canada, Franklin suggests that it should be 

ceded to the United States, g, 15. 
Carleton, Sir Guy, 50, 137. 
Carlisle, Pa., disturbances at, 335. 
Carpet-bag governments, 291. 
Carr, Dabney, 95. 
Carrington, Edward, 218, 328. 
Carroll, Daniel, 246; portrait, 301. 
Carroll, John, archbishop, portrait, 89. 
Carrying trade, 168, 282. 
Cartwright, Edmund, 288. 
Catalonian rebels indemnified, 28. 
Catholics in the United States, 88. 
Cato, pseudonym, 332. 
Cavendish, Lord John, 6, 16. 



390 



INDEX 



Censors, council of, in Pennsylvania, 136. 

Ceniinel, pseudonym, 333. 

Cervantes, Miguel de, 164. 

Charles II., 28. 

Chase, Samuel, 355. 

Chatham, Lord, 4. 

Cherry Valley, 128. 

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 228. 

Chittenden, Thomas, 157; portrait, 159. 

Cincinnati, order of the, 120-125; badge of, 
122. 

Cincinnati, the city, original name of, 212. 

Cincinnatus, pseudonym, 332. 

Clan system, 64. 

Clergymen in the Massachusetts convention, 
339 ; their liberal spirit, 342. 

Cleveland, Grover, his tanff message, 315. 

Clinton, George, favours persecution of Tories, 
129 ; an enemy to closer union of the states, 
150; defeats impost amendment, 237; op- 
poses the Constitution, 363 ; entertains Presi- 
dent Washington at dinner, 374; portraits, 
149. 363- 

Clinton, Sir Henry, 149. 

Clymer, George, 330; portrait, 331. 

Coalition ministry, 36-44. 

CcEur-de-Lion and Saladin, 167. 

Coinage, 172. 

Coins in circulation, specimens of, 169; scales 
for weighing, 177. 

Coke, Thomas, 87. 

Columbia College, 131. 

Commerce, control of, given to Congress, 282. 

Common law in the United States, 70. 

Commons, House of, in England, 70, 310-317; 
in North Carolina, 67. 

Compromises of the Federal Constitution, 269- 
289. 

Confederation, articles of, 94-102. 

Congress, Continental, its instructions to the 
commissioners at Paris, 34; its weakness, 57, 
loi, 102, 106-118, 252; its anomalous char- 
acter, 95 ; its presidents, 99 ; driven from 
Philadelphia by drunken soldiers, 118; flees 
to Princeton, 118 ; unable to enforce the pro- 
visions of the treaty, 126-136, 160 ; unable to 
regulate commerce, 144-148 ; afraid to inter- 
fere openly in the Shays rebellion, 201 ; 
passes ordinance for government of north- 
western territory, 216-221; refuses to recom- 
mend a convention for reforming the govern- 
ment, 234; reconsiders its refusal, 238; in 
some respects a diplomatic rather than a leg- 
islative body, 256; its migrations, 293, 327; 
debates on the Constitution, 328 ; submits it 
to the states, 32S ; comes to an end, 370. 

Congress, Federal, powers granted to, 292; 
choice of president by, 301-304 ; counting 
electoral votes in, 304, 305, 309. 

Connecticut, government of, 67 ; quarrels with 
New York and Pennsylvania, 150-157 ; keeps 
almost entirely clear of paper money, 182 ; 
western claims of, 205, 208 ; ratifies the Con- 
stitution, 336. 

Connecticut compromise, the, 269-274. 

Connecticut settlements in Pennsylvania, map, 
'53- 

Conservative character of the American Revo- 
lution, 66. 

Constitution, emblematic federal ship, 362, 

369- 
Convention, the Federal, 160, 239-326. 
Conway, Gen. Henry, 6. 
Cooper, Dr. Myles, 132. 
Cornvvallis, Lord, 21, 50, 373. 



Council, privy, 320. 

Cowardice of American politicians, 250. 
Cravvford, William, 50. 
Curtis, B. R., 297. 

Cutler, Manasseh, 218; portrait, 219; view of 
his birthplace, 220. 

Dane, Nathan, 21S, 233, 328; portrait, 234. 

Dayton, Jonathan, 241, 246; portrait, 241. 

Debt, imprisonment for, 185. 

Debts to British creditors, 26, 137. 

Delaware, government of, 67 ; ratifies the Con- 
stitution, 334. 

Democratic-Republican party, 329. 

Dickinson, John, 96, 118, 246, 260, 26t, 301, 
303, 321, 332; portrait, 95; facsimile of let- 
ter by, 235. 

Dissolution of Parliament, 317. 

Dollar, the Spanish, 172. 

Dunmore, Lord, 318. 

Election by lot, 301 ; first presidential, 370- 

372- 
Electoral college in Marj'land, 68 ; device 

adopted for choosing the president, 300-308 ; 

its practical working, 308. 
Elliot, Sir Gilbert, 2. 
Ellsworth, Oliver, 246, 267, 269, 289, 291, 295, 

297, 300, 321 ; portrait, 268. 
Embargo acts, 146. 
Eminent domain, 209. 
Episcopal church, 79-86. 
Erie Canal, 228, 246. 
Executive, federal, 260, 298 ; length of term, 

299 ; how elected, 299-305 ; corresponds to 

sovereign, not to prime minister, 310, 320. 
Exports not to be taxed, 284, 292. 

" Federal," the word preferred to " national," 
273- 

Federal city under federal jurisdiction, 293, 341. 

" Federal Farmer" (letters by R. H. Lee), 333. 

Federal Street in Boston, 354 ; view of the 
meeting-house, 354. 

" Federalist," the, 242, 365, 366. 

Federalist party, 256, 329. 

Field, S. J., 296. 

Fisheries, question of, 20, 25, 35, 144, 168. 

Fitch, John, autograph, 60 ; his steamboats, 
61, 67. 

Fitzherbert, Alleyne, 21. 44. 

Florida surrendered by Great Britain to Spain, 
35 ; disputes about boundary of, 224. 

Folkland, 203, 222. 

Fox, C. J., his sympathy with the Americans, 
I ; quarrels with Shelbume, 6, 14 ; resigns, 
15; waywardness of his early career, 16; co- 
alition with North, 36-41 ; mistake in oppos- 
ing a dissolution, 47; portrait of, 7; carica- 
tures of, 3, 13, 39. 

France, treaty of 1783 with Great Britain, 35. 

Franklin, Benjamin, negotiates with Oswald, 
9; overruled by Jay and Adams, 22; his 
arguments against compensating the loyal- 
ists, 28; ridicules the Cincinnati, 122; re- 
turns from France, 143 ; in the Federal Con- 
vention, 242, 269, 298, 321, 323, 325 ; lays the 
Constitution before the Pennsylvania legis- 
lature, 327 ; called a dotard by the Antifeder- 
alists, 333 ; portraits, 29, 42, 328. 

Franklin, W. T., portrait, 42. 

Franklin, state of, 214, 224 ; map, 212 

Fraunces's Tavern, 52. 

Frederick the Great, on republics, 60. 

Free trade, 4, 139-144. 



INDEX 



391 



French army embarks at Boston, 50. I Independence Hall, views of, 119, 143, 239 

Froissart isS ' India bill, 46. 

Frontier 'post's to be surrendered by Great Insurrections, suppression of, 290. 



Britain,'52; why not surrendered, 157. 
Fugitive slaves, 221, 288, 356. 
Fur trade, 137, 171. 



Gadsden, C, 128, 356. 

Gallatin, A., 131, 139- 

Galloway, Joseph, 266. 

Gardoqui, Diego, 225 ; portrait, 227. 

Gates, Horatio, 114-116, ig6 ; portrait, 115. 

George III. threatens to abdicate, 4; his dis- 
gust at the coalition, 43 ; rebuked by House 
of Commons, 46; his personal government 
overthrown, 4S ; hopes the Americans will 
repent of their folly, 60, 145; resists the 
movement for abolishing slave-trade, 74 ; his 
personal government, 317; portrait of, 45; 
caricature of, 3. . ,. . 

Georgia takes the lead in making the judiciary 
elective, 71; abandonsthat evil practice, 71; 
issues paper money, 178; ratifies the Con- 
stitution, 336. 

Germain, Lord George, 37. 

Gerry, Elbridge, 125, 247, 261, 270, 272, 275, 
290, 299, 302, 320, 324, 350. 37' ; portrait, 
271 ; view of his house at Cambridge, 273. 

Gibbon, Edward, 36, 38; portrait, 35. 

Gibraltar, 17, 34- 

Gladstone, W. E., 240, 312, 314. 

Gorham, Nathaniel, 272, 339,; portrait, 103. 

Governors, colonial, unpopularity of, 68. 

Gower, Lord, 43. 

Grafton, Duke of, 6. 

Grantham, Lord, 16. 

Granville, Lord, 314. 

Grasse, Count, defeated by Rodney, 12, 14. 

Grayson, William, 167, 221; autograph, 168. 

Green Dragon tavern, 348. 

Greene, Nathanael, 97, 106, 113, 124. 128,242. 

Grenville, Thomas, 10; portrait, 11. 

Griffin, Cyrus, portrait, 105. 

Guadaloupe, 34. 

Guilford, Earl of, 43. . 

Gunston Hall, Va., view of, 2S9. „--— "^ 

Guy Vaux, satirical print, 3. ^ 

Half-pay controversy, 112. 
Hamilton, Alexander, his early life, 130--132; 
attacks the Trespass Act, 134; calls for a 
federal convention, 233 ; advocates the im- 
post amendment, 237 ; in the Federal Con- 
vention, 242, 244, 261, 263, 265, 267, 274, 
299, 324; on inconvertible paper, 295; on 
the electoral college, 307 ; called a boy by 
the Antifederalists, 333; authorship of the 
" Federahst," 365-367; supports the Con- 
stitution in the New York convention, 367, 
368; his financial measures, 373; portraits, 
126, 133, 365 ; bearer of ship of state, 369. 

Hancock, John, 108, 200, 338, 340, 351; PC""- 
trait, 337 ; facsimile of letter by, 352, 353- 

Hannibal, 163. 

Hanson, John, portrait, 99. 

Hargreaves, James, 288. 

Harrison, Benjamin, 359; portrait, 357. 

Hartington, Lord, 314. 

Hartley, David, 44. 

Hawks, F. L., 83. 

Heath, Gen. William, 339- 

Henry, Patrick, 80, 242, 358, 359, 37'. 

Hint Club, 178. 



Intercitizenship, 97. 
Iroquois league, 205. 
Irreconcilables in the Federal Convention, 243, 

260, 262, 264, 274. 
Isolation of states a century ago, 64. 



Impost amendment, 235-259. 



Jackson, William, portrait, 253. 
Jay, John, thwarts Veigennes, 20, 2i, 34 ; tries 
to establish free trade between United States 
and Great Britain, 26; condemns persecu- 
tion of Tories, 128; on compensation for 
slaves, 137; consents to the closing of the 
Mississippi River for twenty-five years 226 ; 
why not sent as delegate to Federal Conven- 
tion, 243 ; supports the Constitution in New 
York convention, 364; contributes articles 
to the " Federalist," 365 ". receives nine elec- 
toral votes for the vice-presidency, 372 ; por- 
traits, 26, 42. 

Jefferson, Thomas, opposed to slavery, 74; 
favours religious freedom, 82 ; minister to 
France, 143, 160; assists Gouverneur Morris 
in arranging our decimal currency, 172 ; his 
plan for the government of the northwestern 
territory, 210; wishes to prohibit slavery in 
the national domain, 212, 220; his purchase 
of Louisiana, 222 ; absent from United States 
at the time of the Federal Convention, 242 ; 
his faith in the people, 243, 348; his opin- 
ion of the Constitution, 329 ; approves the ac- 
tion of the Massachusetts convention, 351 ; 
portrait, 204 ; map of his proposed states, 
211. 

Jenifer, D., portrait, 313- 

Johnson, W. S., 246; portrait, 247- 

Jones, Paul, 362. 

Jonesljorough, convention at, 214. 

Judiciary, elective, 71; federal, 260, 321, 322. 

Juilliard vs. Greenman, 296. 

Kentucky, 18, 204, 213, 216, 224, 226. 
Keppel, Lord, 6, 16, 44. 
-King, Rufus, 233. 238, 246, 264, 267, 269, 275, 

281, 297, 299, 302, 344, 346 ; portrait, 237. 
King's Mountain, 27, 214, 342. 
Kings, election of, in Poland, 299. 
Know Ye certificate, facsimile of, 191. 
Know Ye men and Know Ye measures, igo, 

261. 
Knox, Henry, 120. 

Lafayette, 50, 54. 

Langdon, John, 246, 290, 291, 295, 297, 303, 

371 ; portrait, 291. 
Lansing, John, 243, 246, 260, 263, 273, 364, 365; 

portrait, 243. 
Laurens, Henry, .2,21; portrait, 42. 
Lecky, W., 106. 
Ledyard, Isaac, 135. 
Lee, Henry, 328, 360. 
Lee, Richard Henry, 57, 147, 218, 221, 242, 

327, 333. 338, 350, 359, 371- ., , p „ 

" Letters from a federal Farmer, by R. H. 

Lee, 333- 
Lexington, 50, 342. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 74, 212, 222. 
Lincoln, Benjamin, 196, 198, 339, 355. 
Livingston, Robert, 34, 364, 375 ; portrait, 

33. 

Livingston, William, 181, 246; portrait, 261. 

Locke, John, 66, 242. 

Long Lane becomes Federal Street, 354. 



392 



INDEX 



Long Parliament, 95, 253. 

Lords, House of, 6S, 70; contrasted with Sen- 
ate, 315. 

Lottery ticket, facsimile of, 141. 

Lowndes, Rawlins, 355, 356. 

Loyalists, compensation of, 27-31 ; persecution 
of, 126-136 ; did not form, in any proper 
sense of the word, an opposition party, 329. 

Luzerne, Chevalier de, 34, 54. 

Lykian League, 267. 

Macdougall, Alexander, 113. 

McDuffie, George, 62. 

McKean, Thomas, 335 ; portrait, 97. 

Madison, James, and the Religious Freedom 
Act, 82 ; on right of coercion, 103 ; advocates 
five percent, impost, io8; on the ordinance 
of 1787, 221 ; moves that a convention be 
held to secure a uniform commercial policy, 
230; succeeds in getting delegates appointed, 
238 ; his character and appearance, 244, 245 ; 
his journal of the proceedings, 248 ; chief 
author of the Virginia plan, 251, 289; one of 
the first to arrive at the fundamental concep- 
tion of our partly federal and partly national 
government, 25S ; approves at first of giving 
Congress the power to annul state laws, 259 ; 
opposes the New Jersey plan, 264 ; declares 
that the real antagonism is between slave 
states and free states, 267,276 ; author of the 
three fifths compromise, 280 ; condemns 
paper money, 296 ; disapproves of election 
of the executive by the legislature, 299 : ap- 
proves of a privy council, 321 ; supports the 
Constitution in Congress, 328 ; called a boy 
by the Antifederalists, 333; supports the 
Constitution in the Virghiia convention, 360 ; 
part author of the " Federalist," 365, 366; 
denies that there can be a constitutional right 
of secession, 368 ; portraits ol,/roniispiece, 
245, 248. 

Maine as part of Massachusetts, 336. 

Manchester, Duke of, 44. 

Marbois, Frangois de Barbe, 21, 34. 

Marion, Francis, 128. 

Marshall, John, 84, 297, 322, 360; portrait, 
360. 

Martin, Luther, 247, 260-262, 264, 267, 269, 
274, 296, 355 ; portrait, 275. 

Maryland, government of, 67; insists upon 
cession of northwestern lands, 96, 207, 209; 
paper money in, 181 ; message to Virginia, 
230; ratifies the Constitution, 355. 

Mason, George, 247, 261, 271, 283, 284, 296- 
29<3i 30.It 3027 321, 324, 357> 359; portrait, 
284 ; view of his house, 2S9. 

Massachusetts, government of, 69 ; abolishes 
slavery, 77 ; religious bigotry, 78 ; on the 
five per cent, duty, loS ; tries to propose a 
convention for increasing the powers of 
Congress, 146 ; lays claim to a small part of 
Vermont, 158; paper money in, 182-192; 
western claims of, 204; changes her attitude, 
238 ; local self-government in, 336 ; debates 
on the Constitution, 340-351 ; ratifies it, 
suggesting amendments, 351. 

" Massachusetts Chronicle," quoted, 127. 

" Massachusetts Spy," facsimile page of, 173. 

Massacre, Boston, 342. 

Mayhew, Jonathan, 95. 

Meade, William, 80, 84. 

Mentor and Phocion, 134. 

Mercer, J. F., 295. 

Merchants' Exchange, New York, 71. 

Methodists, 86. 



Middletown convention, 1 18 ; old view from 
Hartford road, 121. 

Mifflin, Thomas, portrait, 53. 

Minisink, 128. 

Mirabeau, Count de, 124. 

Mississippi River, attempt to close it, 224- 
226, 357 ; valley of the, 17, 204. 

Monroe, James, 231. 

Montesquieu, C, 242 311. 

Moonshiners, 356. 

Morris, Gouverneur, 113, 172, 246, 260, 270, 
281, 283, 290, 294, 297, 299, 301, 323; por- 
trait, 307. 

Morris, Robert, 113, 174, 246, 332; portrait, 
174. 

Moultrie, William, 148, 356. 

Mount Vernon, view of, 55. 

Muley, Ismail, 164 ; facsimile title-page of his- 
tory of his reign, 165. 

Mutiny act, 341. 

Names of persons and places, fashions in, 210- 
212. 

Nantucket, 170. 

Nason, Samuel, 342. 

Naval eminence of New England, 20, 143. 

Navigation acts, 142-148, 171. 

Negroes carried away by British fleet, 137. 

Nelson, Samuel, 297. 

New Connecticut, 157. 

New Hampshire lays claim to Vermont, 157, 
158; riots in, 198; hesitates to ratify the 
Constitution, 355 ; ratifies it, 361. 

New Jersey quarrels with New York, 152 ; 
paper money in, 181 ; opposes the attempt 
to close the Mississippi, 227 ; instructs her 
delegates to the Annapolis convention, 232 ; 
her plan for amending the articles of confed- 
eration, 264; ratifies the Constitution, 334. 

New Roof, 361. 

New York passes navigation and tariff acts 
directed against neighbouring states, 150; 
lays claim to Vermont, 157, 15S; paper 
money in, 181 ; western claims of, 206-208; 
defeats the impost amendment, 235-237 ; 
debates on the Constitution, 362-368; rati- 
fies it, 368; asks for a second convention, 
369 ; fails to choose electors, 370. 

New York, plan of the city, no, in. 

New York Central Railroad, 228. 

Newburgh address, 113, 117, 125- 

Nicola, Louis, his letter to Washington, 112, 
125. 

Ninth Pillar erected, 361. 

Non-importation agreement, 146. 

North, Frederick, Lord, fall of his ministry, 
1 ; coalition with Fox, 36-40 ; his blindness, 
40 ; his proposals after Saratoga, 94 ; his 
subservience to the king, 317; caricatures 
of, 37. 39- 

North Carolina issues paper money, 178 ; 
cedes her western lands to the United 
States, 213 ; repeals the act of cession, 214; 
delays her ratification of the Constitution, 
369- 

Ohio, 217-221. 

Old Sarum, 267. 

Old South Church, 342. 

Onslow, George, 2 

Ordinance of 1787, 213, 216-221. 

Oregon, 62. 

Oswald, Richard, 9-12, 15, 21-25, 31, 44. 

Paine, Thomas, 50, 56, 206; portrait, 51. 



INDEX 



393 



Paper currency, 170-195, 220, 234, 294-297; 
specimens of, 175-194. 

Parade in New York, 369. 

Parker, Theodore, 284. 

Parsons, Samuel Holden, 217. 

Parsons, Theophilus, 339, 346 ; portrait, 339. 

Parties, formation of, 328. 

Paterson, William, 246, 263-266, 274, 278, 296 ; 
portrait, 263. 

Patterson, militia officer in Wyoming, 154. 

Payson, Rev. Philip, 342. 

Pendleton, Edmund, portrait, 359. 

Pennsylvania, government of, 67 ; first tariff 
act, 146; quarrels with Connecticut, 152- 
156; paper money in, 181 ; opposes the clos- 
ing of the Mississippi, 227 ; contest over the 
Constitution, 329-334 ; ratifies it, 334. 

Petersham, scene of Shay's defeat, 197, 340 ; 
view of house where he was captured, 197. 

Philadelphia, Congress driven from, 118; 
Federal Convention meets at, 239; unpar- 
liamentary proceedings in legislature, 330; 
celebrates ratification by ten states, 362. 

Phocion and Mentor, 134. 

Pierce, William, autograph, 315. 

PinckneVi Charles, 246, 261, 281, 284,288, 290, 
297,298,356; portrait, 285 ; facsimile of let- 
ter by, 286, 287. 

Pinckney, Cotesworth, 246, 261, 277, 281, 2S2, 
284, 288, 297, 355, 356; portrait, 283. 

Pitt, Thomas, 42. 

Pitt, William, chancellor of exchequer, 16 ; 
denounces the coalition, 37 ; defends the 
treaty, 42 ; refuses to form a ministry, 42 ; 
character, 46, 47 ; prime minister, 47 ; wins 
a great political victory, 48 ; favours free 
trade with the United States, 141 ; portrait, 

47.- 
Pohick parish church, 83. 
Polish kings, election of, 299. 
Population as an index of wealth, 276. 
Portland, Duke of, 16, 44. 
Potomac, navigation of, 229-232. 
Poughkeepsie, convention at, 363-36S ; old 

view of, 364. 
Powers granted to federal government, 290. 
Presbyterians. 82, 88. 
Presidents of Continental Congress, 99. 
Prevost's march against Charleston, 26. 
Prime minister contrasted with president, 312- 

314- 
Primogeniture, abolition 01, 73. 
Proprietary governments, 67, 73. 
Providence, R. I., barbecue and mob at, 362. 
Public lands, 203. 
Putnam, Israel, 157. 
Putnam, Rufus, 216; portrait, 217; his house 

at Rutland, 218. 

Quebec act, 18. 
Quesnay, Francois, 146. 
Quorum, how to make a, 332. 

Railroads, political influence of, 62. 
Randolph, Edmund, 247, 251, 254, 258, 260, 

265, 284, 291, 296, 298, 302, 321, 324,358, 

360; portrait, 255. 
Rattlesnake, the American, a satirical print, 

93 
Rayneval, Gdrard de, 21. 
Read, George, 260, 295 ; portrait, 295. 
Reform, parliamentary, 6. 
Religious freedom, progress in, 78-88. 
Religious tests opposed by Massachusetts 

clergymen, 342. 



Representation of slaves, 277-282. 

Representatives, House of, 255, 272. 

Republican party, 256. 

Republics, old notion that they must be small 
in area, 60. 

Reserve, Connecticut's western, 208. 

Revenue bills, 292. 

Revere, Paul, 348; portrait, 349. 

Revolution, American, its conservative char- 
acter, 66; the French, 66, 125. 

Rhode Island, government of, 67 ; extends 
franchise to Catholics, 79 ; on the five per 
cent, duty, 109; paper money in, 182-190; 
opposes the closing of the Mississippi, 227 ; 
does not send delegates to Philadelphia, 
239 ; delays her ratification of the Constitu- 
tion, 369. 

Richmond, Duke of, 1, 16. 

Rittenhouse, David, 116. 

Rockingham, Marquis of, 4; instability of his 
ministry, 5 ; its excellent work, 7 ; his death, 
16. 

Rodney's victory over Grasse, 14 ; satirical 
print, 13. 

Roman republic not like the United States, 
60. 

Rousseau, J. J., 66, 124. 

Rutgers, Elizabeth, 132. 

Rutledge, John, 246, 261, 280,284,298,299, 
301, 321, 356; portrait, 279. 

St. Clair, Arthur, 212, 221. 

St. Croix boundary monument, 25. 

Saladin and Coeur-de-Lion, 167. 

Sandy Hook light-house, 152. 

Sargent, Winlhrop, 218. 

Scales for weighing coins, 177. 

Schuyler, Philip, 132, 150, 157, 207. 

Scott, Sir Walter, 158. 

Scottish representation in Parliament, 267. 

Seabury, Samuel, portrait, 85. 

Secession, threats of, 226, 234 ; no constitu- 
tional right of, 36S. 

Secrecy of the debates in Federal Convention, 
249. 

Sedgwick, Theodore, 128, 339. 

Self-government, 57, 64, 90. 

Senate, feceral, made independent of lower 
house, 272 ; contrasted with House of Lords, 

315- 

Senates, origni of, 68. 

Seven Years' War, 14, 204. 

Sevier, John, 214; portrait, 215. 

Shattucic, Job, 195. 

Shays rebellion, 196, 197, 234, 261, 336, 340, 
344- . . 

Sheffield, Lord, protectionist, 141 ; on the 
Barbary pirates, 166. 

Shelburne, William, Earl of, his character, 4; 
his memorandum on proposed cession of 
Canada, 11; prime minister, 16; approached 
by Rayneval and Vaughan, 21 ; misjudged 
by Fox, 38 ; defends the treaty, 42; resigns, 
42 ; his conduct justified by his enemies, 
44 ; understood the principles of free trade, 
4, 139; portrait of, 5. 

Shepard, William, 196. 

Sherman, Roger, 246, 261, 269, 275, 289, 295, 
297, 299, 303, 320, 333 ; his suggestion as to 
relations of the executive to the legislature, 
29g, 300, 318; portrait, 298. 

Shillings, 172. 

Ship-building in New England, 141-144. 

Shute, Rev. Daniel, 342. 

Sidney, Algernon, 66. 



394 



INDEX 



Signatures to the Constitution, facsimile of, 
322. 

Singletary, Amos, 342, 344, 345. 

Six Nations, 205, 217. 

Slave-trade, foreign, permitted for twenty 
years, 283, 343. 355- 

Slavery in the several states, 74-77,288; pro- 
hibited in northwestern territory, 221 ; dis- 
cussions about it in Federal Convention, 
277-290 ; condemned by George Mason, 
284. 

Slaves, representation of, 277-281 ; numbers 
of, in the several states, 2S8. 

Small states converted to federalism by the 
Connecticut compromise, 274, 3:^4. 

Smith, Adam, 131, 139, 140. 

Smith, Capt. John, 206. 

Smith, Jonathan, 344-346; view of his tomb, 
345 ; autograph, 346. 

Smith, Melancton, 364, 368 ; portrait, 367. 

Smugglers, 140. 

South Carolina, Episcopal church in, 79, 84 ; 
revokes five per cent, impost, 1 13 ; issues 
paper money, 178; absolute need of concili- 
ating her, 279, 280 ; makes bargain with New 
England states, 282-2S8 ; debates on the Con- 
stitution, 355-357 ; ratifies it, 357. 

Sovereignty never belonged to separate states, 

Spain, treaty of 1783 with Great Britain, 34; 
attempts to close Mississippi River, 223,226, 

234, 357- . . 
Spanish claim in southwest, map of, 228. 
Spanish dollar, why it superseded English 

pound as unit of value in America, 172. 
Spermaceti oil, 144, 170. 
Springfield arsenal, 196, 201. 
Stage-coach, picture of, 63. 
States, powers denied to, 293. 
Stormont, Lord, 44. 
Story, Joseph, 297. 
Strachey, Sir Henry, 21. 
Strong, Caleb, 246, 272 , 299, 346 ; portrait, 311. 
Succession disputed, 309. 
Suffrage, limitations upon, 72. 
Sugar trade, 142. 

Temple, Lord, 43, 46. 

Tennessee, 18, 204, 213. 

Thayendanegea, 50. 

Thomas, Isaiah, 172; portrait, 171. 

Thompson, Gen., in Massachusetts convention, 
344- 

Thurlow, Lord, 6; portrait, 75. 

Thurston, member of Virginia legislature, 148. 

Tithing-men in New England, 7S. 

Tobacco as currency in Virginia, 171. 

Tories, American ; see Loyalists. 

Tories, British, 40. 

Townshend, Thomas, 16. 

Trade, barbarous superstitions about, 139. 

Travelling, difficulties of, a century ago, 62. 

Treaty of 1783, difficulties in the way of, 8; 
strange character of, 22; provisions of, 24- 
3 1 ; a great diplomatic victory for the Ameri- 
cans, 32, 204; secret article relating to Flor- 
ida boundary, 31, 223; adopted, 44; news 
arrives in America, 50 ; Congress unable to 
carry out its provisions, 126-138, 160. 

Trespass Act in New York, 130-134. 

Trevett vs. Weeden, 189. 

Tucker, Josiah, 58, 146. 

Tyler, John, the elder, 230, 359; portrait, 231. 

Union, sentiment of, 56. 



Unitarianism, SS. 

University men in Federal Convention, 242. 

Vaughan, Benjamin, 21, 33. 

Vergennes, Count de, 12 ; wishes to satisfy 
Spain at the expense of the United States, 
17-20; thwarted by Jay, 21; accuses the 
Americans of bad faith, 31 ; tired of sending 
loans, 108 ; portrait, 30. 

Vermont, troubles in, 156-158 ; riots in connec- 
tion with the Shays rebellion, 198. 

Vice-presidency, 302. 

Victoria, Queen, 314. 

Vincennes, riot in, 226. 

Violence of political invective, 37. 

Virginia, church and state in, 79-84 ; on five 
per cent, impost, 109; paper money in, 178 ; 
takes possession of northwestern territory, 
204-206 ; cedes it to the United States, 260 ; 
plan for new federal government, 251-260; 
its reception by the convention, 260 ; compro- 
mise as to representation of slaves, 278-281 ; 
resents compromise between South Carolina 
and the New England states, 284; debates 
on the Constitution, 357-360; ratifies it, 360. 

" Visionary young men," i.e., Hamilton, Mad- 
ison, Gouverneur Morris, etc., 338. 

Waddington, Joshua, 132. 

Wall Street, old view in, 69. 

Walpole, Horace, 16. 

Walpole, bir Robert, 316. 

War, the Civil, 56, 276, 2S2; contrast with 
Revolutionary, 104-108 ; cost of Revolution- 
ary, 174. 

Washington, George, marches from Vorktown 
to the Hudson River, 50 ; disbands the army, 
51 ; resigns his command, 53 ; goes home to 
Mount Vernon, 54; his "legacy"' to the 
American people, 55; on the right of coer- 
cion, 100 ; urges half-pay for retired officers, 
112 ; supposed scheme for making him king, 
112 ; his masterly speech at Newburgh, 115; 
president of the Cincinnati, 120; on the weak- 
ness of the confederation, 16S ; wishes to 
hang speculators in breadstuffs, 170; disap- 
proves of Connecticut's reservation of a tract 
of western land, 20S ; approves of Ohio Com- 
pany, 217 ; his views on the need for canals 
between east and west, 228 ; important meet- 
ing held at his house, 229; is chosen delegate 
to the Federal Convention, 238 ; president of 
the convention, 247 ; his solemn warning, 
250, 324 ; his suggestion as to the basis of rep- 
resentation, 272 ; asks if he shall put the ques- 
tion on the motion of Wilson and Pinckney, 
298 ; disapproves of electing executive by the 
legislature, 299; sends draft of the Constitu- 
tion to Congress, 327 ; called a fool by the 
Antifederalists, 333; approves of amend- 
ments, but opposes a second convention, 350; 
unanimously chosen president of the United 
States, 370; his journey to New York, 374 ; 
his inauguration, 374; Trumbull's picture of 
his resignation, 56; his coach and four, 65; 
portraits, 78, 117, 251 ; Cruikshank's picture 
of his triumphal journey, 372; Darley's pic- 
ture of his inauguration, 374 ; facsimile of 
letter by, 370. 

Washington, William, 356. 

Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, 84. 

Watt, James, 61, 288. 

Wayne, Anthony, 50. 

Wealth as a basis of representation, 276. 

Webster, Daniel, 56, 221, 297. 



.RBM^-'26 



INDEX 



395 



Webster, Pelatiah, 104, 240. 

Weems, Mason, 84. 

Wesley, John, 86. 

West, Rev. Samuel, 343 ; silhouette, 343. 

West India trade, 142, 171. 

Whigs, British, sympathize with revolutionary 

party in America, 2. 
Whiskey as currency in North Carolina, 171. 
White, Abraham, 344. 
Whitefield, George, 86. 
Whitehill, Robert, 333. 
Whitney, Eli, 288. 
Williamson, Hugh, portrait, 303. 
Wilson, James, 246, 261, 264, 266, 270, 281, 



295, 298, 299, 301, 302, 321, 333, 335; por- 
trait, 332. 

Witenagemot, 68. 

Wolf Creek Mills, Ohio, 222. 

Worcester, street view in, 195. 

Worcester Spy, 172. 

Wraxall's Memoirs, i. 

Wyoming, troubles in, 132-156; bird's-eye 
view of, 151. 

Wythe, George, 246 ; portrait, 257. 

Yates, Robert, 243, 260, 263, 273, 364, 365; 

autograph, 276. 
Yazoo boundary, 31, 224. 



' I. 



CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, V. S. A. 

ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY 

H. O. HOUGHTON AND CO. 



Ml 



-0 nh2 



